


Eternal Tails: Reaching Higher

by Pantalion



Series: Chasing the Wind [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Dating, F/M, Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Matchmaking, Mental Health Issues, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 30,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27335344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pantalion/pseuds/Pantalion
Summary: For the crime of ruining Amy's big night, Miles "Tails" Prower has been given an impossible mission: Help her plan and set up a perfect date with Sonic the Hedgehog. But when the fastest thing alive's immediate response is to run away the moment he sees her will Miles be able to use his genius to figure out a date Sonic can't refuse? And if not... who's going on all these dates?
Relationships: Amy Rose & Cream the Rabbit, Amy Rose & Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose/Miles "Tails" Prower, Amy Rose/Sonic the Hedgehog, Cream the Rabbit/Miles "Tails" Prower, Miles "Tails" Prower & Sonic the Hedgehog
Series: Chasing the Wind [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120646
Comments: 84
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there, and thanks for checking out Reaching Higher.
> 
> As always you should never need to read earlier Eternal Tails stories to understand what's going on, but this story is a direct sequel to Chasing the Wind so you might want to check that one out first. Nothing in the main Eternal Tails series is necessary reading, though you're very welcome to read those too if you haven't already.
> 
> Hope you enjoy reading!
> 
> ~ Pan.

How had it come down to this?

Miles "Tails" Prower, eternal sidekick, unparalleled gadgeteer genius, and slightly traumatised child soldier, sat at the desk of his workshop. With both fluffy tails wrapped in his arms the fox stared at his computer screen, rocking occasionally as he agonised over two words he'd typed upon them weeks before.

'Somewhere nice?'

Damning in their simplicity, overwhelming in their significance, these words had been a source of constant anxiety for almost a month. He'd built a thorium powered nightlight faster than it had taken him to even take a crack at this question.

"Still working, little buddy?" A blue hedgehog leaned on the back of his chair, scratching at an ear with a white gloved finger.

"Hey, Sonic." Miles flashed a smile up at his best friend, even though this was all his fault. "Just thinking about some stuff, nothing important."

It was important.

"You sure? Thought you looked like something was bothering you."

"Mmm, nope!"

He was very bothered.

"Well… Alright." Sonic glanced at the screen. Miles didn't care, he'd written it in hexadecimal in the first place. "I'm gonna hit the hay. Don't stay up too late, alright?"

"Yeah, no worries."

He was extremely worried.

With a satisfied nod Sonic turned away from the desk and ambled back to the couch he'd previously been sat watching TV. He flopped over face first onto the cushions, not even bothering to turn it off. Miles rolled his eyes, slipping a tail into a mug on his desk to fish out the remote. He didn't even know how his recurrent house guest managed to lose it quite so regularly.

"Thanks buddy." A thumbs up poked over the top of the couch as the distracting stream of light and noise shut off. Miles grunted, dropping the remote to the desk without his arms ever leaving his other tail. It was pretty handy being a weird mutant sometimes.

Well, most of the time, really. Miles threaded his tail back into his grasp and squeezed, laying his head against the fluff as he stared at the screen.

If only Sonic hadn't been there that day.

Well, no, that was irrational. Sonic was by nature a vagabond, roaming the Earth - while avoiding the water - in an endless state of wanderlust, and Miles had made a lifelong habit of echoing his hero's endless migration. The various workshops he had built across the globe were intended to provide the two of them with a safe place to rest their heads, as well as an outpost from which they could base their operations whenever a villain - probably Eggman - started causing trouble. He might refuse to let Miles build him a room but this was as much Sonic's home as anywhere could be. If he wasn't here, Amy Rose, cause of Miles' current stress, would have waited until he was.

Miles slumped on the table with a yawn, his tails serving as cushions as he stared at the words like they might transform into some hidden secret if he looked hard enough.

No, if only Sonic hadn't run away.

Miles had wanted to be nice. Sonic loved the 'Knots, and Amy loved Sonic. What could be better for his two friends than to mention to her that the band was on tour? Sonic would get to see the concert, Amy would get a third date after five years of being Sonic's self-professed girlfriend, and almost two years living as a completely different person after the original person failed miserably to catch his attention.

Well, Miles knew what it was like to change yourself for someone. He'd done it twice already, reforging his personality from the borderline feral state he'd been in when he and Sonic first met, and once again when his hero had suggested to him that perhaps he didn't need a sidekick that fought giant robots with him. Probably because Miles had grown so little in the five years they'd known one another that they'd decided that he'd got his age wrong and celebrated his eighth birthday four years running. Sonic had wanted nothing more than a lab rat, so Miles had become just that and nothing more. Better that than being abandoned again.

He'd thought if she'd got that date, maybe her feelings would finally get through. At very least, maybe she'd calm down enough to show Sonic a glimpse of what a great person she was - at least when she was nowhere near Sonic. And maybe Miles would stop having a desperate hedgehog tween alternate between breaking into and just breaking his workshop when the Blue Blur snubbed her advances, trampled her feelings or generally made her feel like dirt.

Perfect plan, no downsides. She'd showed up looking radiant, tickets in hand, everything was set. Until Sonic made a run for it. Until she'd been about to cry. Until he'd said things. Until she suddenly decided to take him instead. He barely even knew who the Knothole Knots were.

And he… Well, he'd kind of passed out and she'd had to carry him home. That had been his stunning contribution to her evening. He'd half expected her to drop him off a cliff or something after that. Instead she'd proposed a different punishment.

She'd told him to help her get a date with Sonic, and to take her "somewhere nice" to make up for ruining her night.

Well, Miles had done a lot of things in his life. He'd mastered various academic fields and dabbled in countless others. He'd taken down armies single handed, faced down mind warping monsters, wielded the infinite powers of the chaos emeralds and been to more alternate dimensions than most people had restaurants. Miles had also spent _plenty_ of time around girls.

Specifically, saving girls, fighting beside girls, and very occasionally fighting girls. Going places with girls, even Amy, who was one of his oldest and closest friends, was generally something that happened because they were trying to save the world together, usually wasn't his idea, and enjoyment was rarely a factor for consideration.

:: go to bed!

A message popped up in the corner of his screen, a smiling pink icon identifying the owner as none other than the girl in question. Miles sighed, slender fingers flying across the keyboard, chin propped by up a tail.

:: I'll go to bed soon.

:: I haven't forgotten!

That was part of the one-sided "deal". Get some sleep the night before. As if he could sleep with all this going on. Even if she was just Amy, who routinely hung out with him while trying to stalk Sonic, she also had a short temper and swung a mean hammer. The potential fallout of his plans for tomorrow could easily turn out as bad as any of Eggman's schemes. She might even cry.

Another message pinged onto his monitor, this time she'd sent a file. Miles raised an eyebrow. An image, titled 'Bed'.

The picture expanded to fill his screen, an animation showing a pink bed with Amy's head poking out from the covers, grinning as a number counted down in the corner. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Amy leapt from the bed, hammer swinging at the camera with a mad gleam in her green eyes. Miles flinched despite himself, but the image had already looped back to the start, grinning at him once more.

:: Very funny.

:: should have gone to bed already! tell Sonic goodnight for me!

:: He's already turned in for the night, but I'll whisper it creepily in his ear anyway. It'll be like you're right here with him.

:: oh ha. ha. that was one time. now go to sleep

:: and don't be late tomorrow

:: I expect you clean as well

:: That was never part of the deal! I'm doing it! I'm rolling in grease right now!

:: nooo

Miles jabbed the power button and hopped down from his chair.

"Amy says goodnight." He murmured as he passed the couch.

"Wh… sha… chilli dog control!" Sonic threw a cushion past his sidekick's head.

"... Yeah, okay. Sweet dreams buddy."

And so, for the first time in a week, Miles climbed the stairs to his room and went to bed before the sun rose, already dreading what might come when it did.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're taking a shower?" Sonic raised an eyebrow as he wandered into the bathroom, crossing the space to the mirrored cabinet to pull a toothbrush from within.

"Just a quick rinse," Miles responded, ears flattened against his head as the steaming water slowly permeated his thick fur.

"What," Sonic sniffed. "With soap? You been rolling around in the oil again, little buddy?"

"No." Miles stuck his tongue out at the hedgehog. "You'd need to wash up too if you ever helped me tune up the Tornado."

Sonic's only reply was a poorly suppressed snigger as he gave up searching for his toothpaste and stole Miles' instead. The fox rolled his eyes with a half smile before turning back to the laborious task of working up a lather in his tails.

Generally speaking, mobians didn't need to bathe, though as with clothing many that lived near or among humans had picked up the habit by cultural osmosis. Unlike humans, however, mobian fur was largely impervious to water. This particular quality didn't much help them much - mobians who could swim like Miles were vanishingly rare - but this did make their fur hard to stain and easy to clean with just a little brushing here and there, something Sonic was happy to take advantage of, given his own disdain for water.

But engines didn't oil themselves, and Miles' life amongst the grease and guts of his machines routinely introduced him to plenty of substances that could stain his fur on a regular basis.

Not that he'd actually done so today. Well, not more than unusual at least. A spot here and there was only natural. Police wore badges, mechanics wore stains. Made sense.

He sighed, watching pink foam swirl away down the drain, leaving his fur smelling of whatever floral disaster the soap's manufacturer had used, and assuredly devoid of any marks that would offend his…

Date? It seemed to be stretching the definition. Miles had no illusions about where Amy's romantic aspirations lay, and they were firmly on the hedgehog currently hawking a green toothpaste loogie into his sink.

Would she be happy? Beat him around the head with her hammer? That was how their last social engagement had started, after all. Better than destroying his workshop at least. Miles wasn't the most sociable person - he left that to Sonic, who seemed to meet someone new every time he lapped the world - but there weren't many things he cared about more than making his friends happy.

"You okay, bud?"

"Huh?" Miles looked up. Sonic was staring at him.

"You've been staring down the drain for awhile now."

"Oh!" Miles smiled, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm fine. Just started thinking of a new engine design using a contraindicative series of twinned hydroelastic centrifuges to provide the actualisation matrix with sufficient propulsive torque!"

Sonic blinked at him, the light fading from his green eyes as he smiled and nodded. "Sounds cool, little buddy! Looking forward to seeing it!"

He had no idea what Miles had just said. And that was fine. Miles handled all things technology - and technobabble - with a smile. That way he was useful, and being useful was why Sonic, unlike his parents, had kept him around.

"You listening?"

"Huh?" Miles shut off the water with a quizzical look, popping his ears back up with a wet spray. Sonic snorted.

"When you get wrapped up in this stuff, you really go all out, don't you?"

"Sorry, Sonic." Miles twisted his tails around one another, wringing the wet from them before flicking his hand up over his face, scraping the water - and his fuzzy forelock - away from his eyes. "What's up?"

"I said I'm heading off for a work out. You want anything while I'm gone?" He held up a towel.

"That's alright. I'm going out myself later anyway."

"Sure thing, catch you later!" Sonic left fast enough to create a small sonic boom with his departure, probably to find a chilli dog vendor. Opening times didn't matter much when you were jogging at Mach two. Worst case he'd cross time zones until he found one.

Miles wandered from the bathroom in thoughtful silence, letting his fur finish air drying in the warmth of his lab while gazing out at the chilly hills outside. Another clear autumn day, perfect for getting out in the Tornado and getting stuff done.

Yeah, that was probably a more accurate way to put it. He had an errand with Amy Rose.

… And that still made him uncomfortable.

Sonic was easy. From the day they met he'd understood what Sonic needed from him, and he was happy to provide it. Amy… Well, he knew what she wanted from Sonic. But him? Sure, he'd saved her life a few times, and given her tech support like he would any of the other heroes in his life, but as far as he could tell she didn't need him at all. The two of them were just bound by Sonic, twin satellites that happened to share the same orbit.

For most of his life that had been equal parts reassuring and terrifying. No pressure to be useful, but no control over when she would eventually leave him.

Miles shook his head as he located a clean pair of gloves. And now she wanted things. Like going to concerts and going somewhere nice and being clean and he now needed to make her happy without having any idea what she wanted and-

Wait. It was that time already?

"Ahhh! I'm going to be late!"

Miles zipped around the workshop almost as fast as Sonic as he gathered his things and burst out of the door.

* * *

What had she been thinking?

Amy watched herself twirl in the mirror. Simple black dress, yellow sash. Would makeup be too much? She wore it last time.

Of course last time…

No, no makeup. Rouge had helped her with it before anyway, she didn't think she could replicate the achievement and she certainly wasn't going to swallow her pride and ask for help again for this. There'd be no end to the teasing. It wasn't as though she needed to go all out to impress anyway.

She did look cute though.

Ugh. Not like Tails would care. Not that it would matter that he didn't. Why had she even wanted to do this? It certainly wasn't Tails' idea. He never liked going out in the first place, all he thought about was his machines unless the world needed saving. This would be the second time she'd dragged him out of his lair to go out with her and she didn't even know why.

Bored? It's not like she didn't have other friends. Or hobbies. She hadn't even been mad at him. And it wasn't like she didn't have someone else she'd rather ask. She'd been Sonic's girlfriend for over half a decade at this point and still getting a date was almost impossible. 

Well, sort of girlfriend. He didn't agree. But he was just shy. She was his damsel, after all, and he, her heroic saviour, it was destiny. And he still saved her. Sometimes. When he wasn't busy saving everyone else. Or avoiding her.

Amy sighed. That was why.

Because Sonic would have said no. And she knew Tails would say yes.

That was just the way he was. Tails was too nice. She'd known he'd agree to go to the concert when Sonic had been… too shy to go with her. And even if she'd asked to mess with him - he had drooled on her head, after all - she'd still known he'd say yes to a second date. Even if he didn't want to, even if he didn't care if she looked cute.

And once she'd asked... now she couldn't back down. Even if she felt bad for making him treat her to this weird pseudodate when everything was all her fault anyway, wouldn't backing out just hurt his feelings at this point?

Well… she'd be lying if she said that she hadn't been looking forward to it. A little. Tails was so serious and smart, what did he think was a good date? Lunch at some fancy restaurant? Some highbrow opera? Did Sonic know? Would he be jealous?

Hopefully she wasn't underdressed. Amy checked the mirror again, adjusting the hairband that played a largely decorative role rather than actually doing anything to keep her stiff spikes in place. Would she look out of place at an opera? Would people stare for the wrong reason? Would she embarrass them both?

Amy took a deep breath.

No, this wasn't Sonic. She'd dated before, kind of. If she counted disasters and getting stood up then she was experienced and worldly in matters of the heart, and knowing Tails he'd already thought ahead to fix those problems. Some high tech holodress to make her fit right in? A private booth away from judging eyes while they ate the finest of foods? She'd just maturely laugh away any problems together with him and it would be fine because Tails wouldn't leave and pretend he fell in a dimensional portal to make her feel even more pathetic for getting ditched.

A knock startled her out of her thoughts. She rushed to open the door, revealing a fluffy two-tailed fox smiling at her from the doorstep.

"Hi! Ready to go?"

"Wh- what are you doing here right now?"

Amy blinked down at him in surprise. He looked alert, clean, and far more composed than she was. He was even wearing a stylish, if slightly oversized, black coat and shoes. Was he wearing a shirt and tie underneath? Formal event?

"Huh? You said to come get you at one?" Miles' ears drooped, smile dimming. "Sorry, did you want me to come earlier?"

She hadn't been expecting him to arrive on time at all. Dates showing up in the first place wasn't something Amy had much experience with, but she was pretty sure arriving "early" for a date wasn't normal, even if it was just by a few minutes.

No, she was the mature one, she could deal with this gracefully. "It's fine." She waved her hand airily. "Let me just lock up and I'll be right out, okay?"

The smile resurfaced, and Miles turned away, breath misting into the air.

Okay, no sign of his plane, so he'd probably run here. That was fine, she only had two pairs of shoes that weren't running shoes. Probably meant it was going to be a few zones away. Maybe run up and grab a jacket-

A resounding crash sounded from outside. Amy poked her head out to see a massive bipedal robot lumbering out of an impact crater, weapons bristling from its metallic chassis as it stomped towards the house.

"Tails!" Amy extended a hand, hammer warping into her grasp from nothingness as she stepped in front of the smaller fox.

Seriously? Why now? What was with the forces of villainy messing with her social life?

"Uh, Amy?"

"Just stay back, Tails. I got this." As far as Eggman mechs went it was on the small side, a good whack to its legs and-

"That one's mine."

"Are you trying to be _macho_ , Tails?" Amy turned to stare at the sheepish fox with a smirk. One date and the timid little guy was suddenly ready to start fighting robots again? She should have done this a year ago.

"I mean literally." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a grimace. The robot stomped to a halt in front of them and settled back on its mechanical haunches with a hiss.

"Seriously?" Amy stared at him, dropping her hammer to crack on the ground beside her. "Tails..."

"I sort of pressed the wrong button. I can fix it!" Tails waved his hands frantically before poking the palm of his glove with a finger. Amy glanced back as cannons telescoped into the robot's torso, legs folding down to accommodate wheels as metal plates flipped and rotated. Within moments a sleek green and white sports car with tinted windows had taken its place at the roadside.

"There we go." Tails' smile turned sunny, if only for a moment.

"... Tails?"

"Yes, Amy?"

"Is that our ride?"

"Uh, yeah?" Tails snapped his fingers and the car's doors popped open with a beep to reveal a surprisingly spacious interior within. There was even a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. "I'd have flown it over, but I didn't want to be late so I ran."

"Why is our ride a transforming combat mech?"

Tails tilted his head at her in confusion. "Because it's cool?"

"You are such a dork."

"What? You know it's cool. What if there aren't any parking spots?"

"You are not using it to clear out a parking space."

"Fiiine." Tails rolled his eyes in a huff. "Shall we go?"

"... Alright." Amy sighed, slipping her hammer into its pocketspace once more before starting towards the passenger side. "But if this thing transforms into anything weird this afternoon you are going to be in trouble, mister!"

Tails flinched.

Was she really that scary? Amy settled onto a fluffy seat and Tails shut the door behind her - such a little gentleman. Except for the chance that this thing might then go haywire and start rampaging through the streets of Station Square with her still inside.

Wait, did these seats have a holes for spikes? Wow. She almost wished she hadn't had her back spike sawn off so she could try it out. Less so her head spikes. She didn't miss the screaming humans who walked into her when they weren't paying attention.

"So you really don't think it's cool?" Tails swung up into the driver's seat, his slightly lowered ears betraying what his smiling demeanour didn't..

"Mmm…" Amy tapped her lips, suppressing a smirk at the fox's expense. "You get five points."

"Is that good?"

"Hm." Amy leaned back in her seat cushion with a grin. "C-minus."

Tails' groan was echoed by her laughter as they set off.


	3. Chapter 3

Miles hadn't needed to clear himself a parking space after all.

Not that he'd have done that. Really. The chill of autumn had driven away most, though not all of his potential targets - uh, competition - leaving him with almost his pick of where to park the _Vortex_.

"Here's the place."

He zipped around the car, opening the passenger door for the hedgehog who had voluntarily covered her eyes when he said they were close.

"... Gameworld?" Amy read aloud, her expression unreadable as she stared at the vibrant sign featuring cheery cartoon critters looming over the admissions booth.

Miles' stomach collided with itself. Was she mad? Disappointed? Should he have researched more? Maybe he should have checked with Cream what kind of places Amy liked? He braced himself for the hammer to appear, for her to yell. Or cry.

She laughed.

Miles blinked.

Well he hadn't been braced for that at _all_.

Amy didn't laugh that often, at least around him. And it was a _nice_ laugh, bubbly and bright. The kind of laugh you'd want to hear again and again. But… preferably not _at_ him. His ears prickled with heat, a blush response thankfully hidden behind a thick coat of fur as he looked away, rubbing the back of his head.

He'd thought it had been a perfect "first date". Something to talk about, activities to do together when conversation ran dry. And with nothing "fixed", there'd be no sense of commitment, so she wouldn't feel like she had to stay when she got tired of his company.

"I… guess I goofed, huh?" Keep smiling.

"Huh?" Amy blinked down at him. "No!" She gave him a radiant grin. "I guess it's just easy to forget you're younger than me, sometimes."

Ouch. This had been stupid. He'd been stupid. He should have realised she was interested in more than just basic stuff. He should have recalculated when he'd seen the dress she was wearing. Even if it wasn't as fine as the one she'd worn for the concert, that had been for _Sonic_. He was just _Tails_ so clearly she'd expected _more_ and-

"Shall we go?" Amy smiled at him, hand outstretched.

"S…" Miles swallowed, forcing his throat clear. "Sure."

Keep smiling.

"Two please." He held his palm out to the blue furred coypu at the welcome desk.

The coypu - "David" from his nametag - stared at the two of them blankly for a moment before holding his own palm over Miles', completing the transaction.

"Welcome to Gameworld, we hope you have a magical stay with us." His voice sounded as cheery as Miles felt, but he presented two thin strips of card to the fox with a paper thin smile before retreating to the small desk of his booth once more, where a small screen showed two teams of humans clashing over a ball.

"At… least there shouldn't be too much of a crowd?" Amy hazarded politely as she walked beside him into the park, peering about with mild interest.

Miles nodded mutely. Small as it was, this was primarily a mobian park, designed to cater to a population that rarely saw members over five feet tall. With that population decimated after the war there was so little demand that mobian only spaces like this were slowly dying out through a sheer lack of customers needed to keep them in business.

"Want to grab lunch first?" He jabbed his thumb towards a brightly coloured fast food shack nearby. She hadn't known where they were going, stood to reason she'd not eaten.

"Sure, alright." She rubbed her bare arms as she walked on ahead, glancing at the "8+" signs that marked a nearby casino building.

"They cleaned the place up a bit, huh?" Miles followed her gaze as he tried to keep up without _seeming_ to rush. Stupid short legs. "They even have a minigolf course now."

"Cleaned up?" Amy looked blankly at him.

"Since the last time we came?" Miles cocked an ear in confusion.

"Oh!" Amy's expression finally brightened. "We came here! Sonic, you and me!"

Ah. Another mistake on his part. Miles smiled.

"Yeah, five years ago. Remember Eggman tore the place up looking for Chaos Emeralds?"

That had been the first time he'd ever been to a real theme park. Before he'd been tainted on the concept by Eggman's relentless obsession with them. The madman's twisted versions, full of robots and traps, left Miles only memories of bitter combat and stress.

He'd meant for this to be a fun thing for the two of them, remembering happier times when they'd first started to become friends. But Amy had probably been to _dozens_ of theme parks in her life. What had been important for him had apparently been one-sided on his part.

"Ooo, I remember! The karting! And there was that big arcade!"

Miles nodded.

"And you won that big Sonic for me!"

"Oh, I... forgot about that part." Miles rubbed the back of his head with a grin. This had been during their early career. Part of how the trio had managed to get into the park in the first place was to cash in on Sonic's fame as a hero. And part of that had been a toy deal.

The idea of carrying a giant plush doll of his friend home had seemed a mortifying prospect, so he had foisted it off on Amy.

Well at least she was smiling now, polite interest replaced by genuine enthusiasm as she waited for him at a table, craning her neck to look at attractions and passing critter mascots.

"Uh, Mister Tails, sir?"

Miles snapped his eyes back to the vendor in surprise. The grey furred cat, maybe a few years older than him, smiled awkwardly, holding up the paper bag containing his food.

"Oh! Sorry!" Miles rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin, swiping his hand to pay before grabbing the food.

The cat winked at him.

"Have a great afternoon, sir!"

"Uh, thanks. You too." Miles put on a smile as he retreated.

"Everything alright?" Amy glanced at him as he came back to the table.

"No worries." He held the bag aloft. "Hope you're ready for a reasonably forgettable luncheon!"

"Chilli dog with the works?" Amy asked him drily, eyebrow raised.

"Huh?" Miles' ears perked. "I got you a burger and fries, sorry. Didn't realise you liked chilli dogs that much."

Amy's expression quickly flicked from surprise to distress, getting worse by the second. Miles quickly pulled out another, different, bag from his coat for damage control.

"And I- I thought it was too cold to enjoy ice cream, so I brought you a strawberry cake for dessert? I can get you a chilli dog as well? Instead? Two chilli dogs?!"

Amy giggled, as though she hadn't been about to cry. Crisis averted.

"When'd you get to be so cute, little Tails?" She grabbed the bag. "Now tell me about these 'bur-gurs'. I'm starving."

Miles let out a sigh. He was beginning to see why Sonic avoided dates, her messing with him was emotionally _exhausting_.

"Uh, well, these are… patented Tailsburgers. Old family recipe."

"Uh huh." Amy took a bite of hers, pushing the bag towards him. "Even though I _just_ watched you get them from the kiosk over there?"

"Umm… Yes." Miles nodded gravely, carefully laying fries inside his own burger before taking a bite. "I… gave them the recipe?"

Amy stared at him for a few long seconds, chewing slowly.

"You know, if it wasn't you I wouldn't believe it." She grabbed a fry from his cup. " _You,_ on the other hand, are exactly enough of a dork to do something like that except for one thing."

Miles nodded. He didn't _have_ a fam-

"You only eat candy!" She grinned, devouring her stolen fry. "If we didn't check in on you for a few weeks we'd find you dead of scurvy."

"I eat _sometimes_."

"Properly?"

"Yes!"

"When's the last time you ate a hot meal?"

"Yesterday!"

"Sonic's there isn't he?"

Miles looked away. "...Yes."

"Mhm." Amy nodded sagely. "You don't sleep, you don't eat. You sure you're not a secret robot double?"

"No, he left with Sonic this morning."

"Hah. As if." Amy glanced at the kiosk, tapping her lip. "Hey, isn't that one of the cats from the concert last week? You gave her an autograph."

"Did I?" Miles shrugged. "Didn't pay much attentio- hey! You have your own."

"You were supposed to look away while I stole it though?" Amy smirked, another stolen fry between her teeth. "Yours taste better anyway."

"Oh yeah?" Miles snapped his fingers forward fast enough to leave an afterimage, two of her fries now in his grasp. "Better test that for science."

"Hey! Super speed is cheating! I'm taking a penalty!"

"Don't make me get my tails in on this!"

Lunch took longer than expected, and involved a good deal of laughter indeed.


	4. Chapter 4

She hated this.

Amy swung her club. The brightly coloured blue ball sailed neatly between the robot army, up the slope, and bounced off the shiny red nose of the Eggman model before spiralling down into the hole.

Tails clapped politely before taking his own position, his own orange ball placed neatly on the floor as he lined up, taking his time.

He was going easy on her. She was no slouch when it came to handling blunt objects, but his brain was like a computer. He calculated vectors and trajectories faster and more easily than Amy could remember what they _were_.

She hated that too. He swung, bouncing off what seemed to be every single robot before the ball settled neatly at the base of the slope. He gave a rueful smile as he tiptoed among the robots for his next swing.

He'd planned _everything_. Amy glanced away, rubbing her arms. She'd forgot to grab a coat thanks to his stupid, _slightly_ cool, war mech putting a pothole in her street. He'd spent all this time thinking up a place she'd enjoy, he'd even thought about what _she_ liked when he got food. _And_ he'd even gone out of his way to find a bakery ahead of time. And he barely even _looked_ at the cute cat that had been flirting with him at the counter.

And she'd laughed at him.

The way he was always so calm, always smiling, never running from her, never getting mad. _She_ was supposed to be the mature one! The worldly one! Why wasn't he flustered and saying the wrong thing and forgetting important stuff and being a jerk? Why wasn't _he_ hurting her feelings and sticking his foot in his mouth?

She hated it so _much_.

Why did she have to be having so much fun? It made her want to take the golf club and just start _breaking_ things and-

Arms wrapped around her shoulders. Amy stiffened in surprise.

"Sorry!" Tails backed away, his fluffy torso now bare.

Of _course_ he noticed she was cold. Amy sighed, pulling at the coat now draped over her shoulders.

"What's this?" She peered at him, eyebrow raised with a smirk. "Don't like my outfit? Trying to cover me up?"

"No, I think you're pretty. I mean you look- I mean your _dress_ …" Tails looked away, rubbing the back of his head. "I just thought you looked cold."

Amy looked away herself, already feeling a little warmer just from the exchange. Why was he so nice? Why couldn't she stop picking on him?

Why wasn't _Sonic_ like this?

"Thanks, Tails." She smiled despite herself.

"Just don't want to beat you because you have a handicap."

"I think you should catch up to my score before talking about that."

"You know a lower score is better in golf, right?" Miles swung again, off the Eggman and into the hole.

"Shut up." Amy looked away with a harumph as she walked to the last hole.

What was she even _doing_ to herself? She _should_ be enjoying herself. It was _fine_ to be enjoying herself. Just…

Amy glanced down at the coat, slipping an arm into the sleeves.

… No wonder it didn't fit him right.

"Did you _seriously_ wear a coat in my size this whole time?"

"Well it wouldn't fit you otherwise." Tails shrugged again, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You are out of your mind." Amy shook her head. Just as predicted, Tails _had_ fixed the problem with her clothes.

The world's number one sidekick.

She swung, her blue ball scraped the blunted thorns of a cactus and went off course, falling into a cave that had her ball ultimately roll back to the start. Amy grumbled as she stomped to the side, letting Tails swing as she fastened the coat.

Would Sonic have brought her here?

… Maybe if it was free. And convenient. He'd have bought her a chilli dog. They definitely wouldn't have messed around like _kids_ , playing with their food.

Would he have remembered being here with her before?

Tails shot cleanly through the desert and into a cave. The ball emerged behind his foot.

"Not that one I guess." He grinned.

He certainly wouldn't be here playing _golf_. Too slow. Probably something competitive like the kart track or one of the ball toss games. Sonic was a _winner_.

Amy's blue ball bounced off a hidden spring, launching it onto the top of the mountain. It slowly rolled along the edge until it plopped down a few inches from the hole.

He wouldn't have noticed she was cold either. _Definitely_ wouldn't have worn a coat just to give it to her.

Tails didn't aim for the spring pad, instead going for another cave. From the far side of the mountain Amy watched it slip out of the lone exit, smoothly rolling down towards the hole.

The orange ball cracked into her blue one, sending it tumbling down in its place.

"That, uh… That counts as _my_ win. Right?" Tails stood close beside her, open mouthed consternation on his face.

"You wish." Amy rubbed his head with a smile. The smaller fox groaned as he hopped over to finish the job.

But Sonic was her _boyfriend_.

And here she was having fun without him.

 _Was_ it wrong to enjoy herself?

Was it wrong to be wishing she was with Sonic even now? That everything _today_ was hers with the one she loved, rather than the fox she'd bullied into taking her?

Was it okay to be happy without... trying so hard?

"Looks like I shouldn't have given you my coat."

"Huh?" She looked to the frowning fox beside her.

"You won." He grinned, holding up the scorecard. "It was that last shot that did it."

"If you'd been _smart_ about it you'd have put motors in the coat to mess up my swing or something." She winked.

"But then there'd have been no room for the armour plating?" Tails shook his head at her like she'd said the silliest thing in the world.

Amy rapped the coat with her fingers, feeling the soft surface turn rigid on impact.

 _Seriously_? Did he think they were in the middle of a war? What was it about geniuses and being nuts?

Tails settled in close beside her as they returned the clubs to a disinterested mink teen who spent the whole time checking her fur in a pocket mirror.

Well, better the gentle madness of Miles Prower than the jagged insanity of Eggman, she supposed. Tails might have more giant robots and rayguns in his lab than she had baking tins, but at least he wasn't going around weaponising bumper cars.

"So where do you want to go next?" Tails craned his neck to look up at her.

There he went again. She couldn't even _pretend_ that she was with Sonic when he was being so obnoxiously considerate.

"Hmmm… That one." She pointed to a ride at random. It was already starting to get dark. Stupid autumn.

"Um… Looks like it's closed off season." Tails tapped a notice taped to the bars.

"I remember there being more rides when we were younger."

"Maybe you should come back in summer? Should be a few more open then."

'You', not 'we'. Reminded her how he didn't even want to be here _now_. He probably wanted to go home already. She should just ask to leave. Stop the torture for them both.

"I-"

Tails gripped her hand.

"That one's open." He pointed at a sign in the distance, one of the few attractions that actually had a line for it. "Let's go!"

"Uh- sure!"

How did he even do that? Did he install a mind-reading device in the coat too? Amy frowned, glancing at him.

"Everything alright?" Tails _obviously_ picked up on it straight away.

"Everything's fine!" She snapped, squinting at him suspiciously.

"Um… okay?" He tilted his ears at her with a confused frown of his own.

" _Exactly_." Amy turned back with a sniff as they reached the ride.

Or at least the queuing area. The two of them easily passed under the "you must be this short to ride" signboard, empty zig-zagging ropes separating them from the few dozen people waiting to board the lakebound Ferris wheel.

"Looks like we're going to be walking longer than waiting at this rate." Amy went to start doing just that, but Tails' hand tightened around her own.

"Seems pretty short… as the _fox_ flies." Tails grinned.

"Oh no, Tails _no_!"

But it was too late. Amy yelped as the little fox's tails revved up like a helicopter and he launched into the air, dragging her trailing one handed underneath as he bypassed half a kilometre of carefully sectioned space in a few seconds, gently depositing her next to a surprised pair of bandicoots. Tails dropped down beside her, a smug look on his face.

"See? Problem solved and-"

" _Tails._ " Amy stretched out her hand, hammer crackling into being between her fingers.

"Wha-?" He stood there, eyes wide as he stared up at her.

"I. Am. _Wearing_. A. Dress!" Her hammer came down on his head with a _piko_ sound, bouncing him off the floor in a shower of golden rings that tumbled across the ground around them. "Did you see?" Amy turned to the bandicoots, who hurriedly shook their heads and turned away. She nodded with a harumph.

"Ah." Tails rubbed his head with a wince, grabbing one of the tumbling rings before it had a chance to fade. "Sorry, Amy. I'll carry you properly next time."

"Why you!" Amy hefted her hammer again, eliciting a flinch from the fox, and the other mobians in the queue, before reabsorbing it with a sigh.

What was she going to do? He probably had no idea why she was annoyed even now. Even _she_ wasn't sure why she was so mad. He was _constantly_ carrying her around when they were fighting, he did it for _everybody_. And it wasn't like she never wore a dress when that happened either. And why was he just letting her hit him? He could easily have dodged. Or blocked. Just thinking about it made her want to hit him again.

 _Sonic_ never let her hit him.

And Sonic wasn't here to see her looking undignified in the first place.

Great, now she felt stupid.

The Ferris came to a stop, streams of water trickling from the base of each cab as they emerged from the great lake below. Attendants in bubble shields escorted the passengers off the pier and back to shore before allowing the next passengers to board.

As a species where even mundane individuals such as herself could achieve speeds in excess of a hundred miles an hour, and survive falls from the top of skyscrapers without injury, Mobians generally didn't have much interest in things like roller coasters or the momentum based rides that humans enjoyed. But rides like this, with the thrill of danger from being near water, or in this case _under_ water were constant favourites.

Did Tails feel that same tingle of anticipation looking at the water extending meters below? She glanced over at him. He was looking down at the floor. Probably still wondering why she hit him. Amy sighed, looking back to the water. Wasn't _his_ fault. She was just crazy. That's why Sonic wanted nothing to do with her and she was _here_ making someone three years younger pretend to like her.

"We're up next." Tails mumbled up at her, his hand hovering near her wrist as they approached the pier.

"Hey, you-" The attendant, an older hedgehog, smiled down at them through her bubble shield. "Tails the Fox? Wow, big fan."

"Uh, thanks." Tails rubbed the back of his head.

"Is Sonic not here with you?" The attendant caught Amy's look. "Oh… I guess not. Enjoy the ride, you two!"

"Sorry," Tails murmured, ears flat and eyes on his feet as he settled in the cushioned seat across from her. The plastic shell of the compartment sealed shut after them as they began to rise in the air at a sedate pace, taking the long way round to the artificial lake below.

Amy snorted. "Why, because you're popular?"

"It's not me they want to see anyway."

"Then it's not your fault, is it?"

"And... I picked you up without asking…"

Amy groaned, reaching her hand out. Tails flinching made _her_ flinch, but she followed through, placing her hand on his fluffy shoulder.

"Look, I'm already over it. Pretty sure that that bandicoot in front of us knows what brand of underwear I'm wearing now, but…" She shrugged. Considering Tails had probably never even worn pants in his life, it seemed silly now she'd calmed down. "Not a big deal, y'know?"

Except that she hit him.

Amy looked out of the window across the water, the outward facing lights of the Ferris reflecting off the surface like glittering beacons in the growing gloom.

"Did… did you have any fun today?"

Tails' reflection seemed surprised. "Me?"

"Don't be a dummy. Obviously you."

"Wasn't today to make up for ruining your concert?"

"So you hated it?"

There was silence as the bubble slipped under the water, the interior falling dark as it sank. Brightly coloured fish swam past the exterior lights, scales glittering as they passed back into the depths. Amy wiped a glove over her cheek as she stared out at them.

"I think I've had fun." Tails said softly at last.

"Liar."

Tails was nice. He was her boyfriend's cute little buddy, always so pleasant. Always trying to see the best in people, always ready to help out. Always helping _her_. And she paid him back by picking on him, even though he never asked for anything for himself.

Was he trying to see the best in her? Was that why he was lying? Was he afraid of hurting her feelings? Afraid she'd hit him if he said no?

"I did though. I really liked hanging out today."

Liar, liar, liar.

If he'd had fun then _she'd_ be fun to be with. If she was fun to be with...

Why didn't Sonic want to spend time with her?

When she'd tried everything and she'd given him space and she'd tried coming on strong and asking him and waiting for him to ask her and it had been five years and she was still waiting for her first kiss and she could barely even breathe around him sometimes because he'd _run away_ and-

A warm presence drew up next to her in the dark, a tail brushing past her legs.

"You see that one?" A gloved finger pressed against the surface of the bubble. "Looks like the ones from Little Planet, right?"

"Huh?" Amy wiped her eyes, blinking rapidly. "The… triangle one?"

"Yeah, with the stripes?"

"Oh… you're right. Dunno the name though." The fish slipped away as the bottom of the lake came into view, vanishing among the plants and glittering stones.

"I liked seeing you… uh. Nevermind."

Amy glanced at the fox shrouded in shadow beside her as he awkwardly aborted midsentence.

"I guess… I know you think I'm a dork." Tails rubbed the back of his head. "But I want to say thanks for getting me out of my shell all the time, Amy. It means a lot to me."

"Pfffft. You _are_ a dork though. What's with all this? You hoping to bump up your grade with some last minute schmoozing?" She elbowed him in the ribs with a grin.

"Well…" Tails rubbed his chest without complaint. "What about you?"

"You think I'm a dork?" Amy smirked.

"Did _you_ have fun today?"

The bubble broke through the shimmering surface of the lake once more, beginning its second slow arc up to the twilight sky.

"... Yeah." Amy sighed, breath misting the interior. "I had a lot of fun. Thanks for bringing me."

Even though she forced him to.

"So I get a passing grade?"

"Mmm…" Amy tapped her lip. "C+."

"Whaaat?" Tails' head fell against the window with a thud.

Amy giggled, brushing her fingers through her spines as she stared down at him.

"Tell you what, take me to that big arcade before we leave and maybe I'll bump you up to a "B", deal?"


	5. Chapter 5

Amy sported a jackpot smile, caught mid-leap like a cheerleader. She radiated happiness while Miles, hunched alongside the crane machine with a sheepish grin on his face, oozed embarrassment. He held aloft a stuffed version of himself that was, humiliatingly, five inches taller.

It was, he had to admit, a great picture.

Miles sighed.

He just wished it wasn't on page 7 of "Yak!" magazine complete with three columns of not quite libellous speculation underneath.

"Whatcha readin', Tails?"

"Ah!" Miles startled, stuffing the magazine under his pillow at multiples of the speed of sound.

Sonic stared at him half-lidded.

"Buddy, we've talked about this." He walked into the room, pulling the magazine from its hiding place with thumb and forefinger.

Miles winced.

"You don't need to hide things that _aren't actually embarrassing_ , you dig?" Sonic held the magazine up. "It's _okay_ to want to read about… 'Yeti sightings in Nights Casino', and… Only the juiciest celeb gossip'?"

Sonic handed it back to him with a frown.

"Okay, maybe you _should_ be hiding that. Want me to pick you something up a little more-"

"Sonic!"

"Okay, okay." The hedgehog raised his hands with a grin. "Anyways, I was just going to head over to South Island, wanna come with?"

Miles nodded, sliding the magazine back under the pillow. "You go ahead. I'll pack up what I'm working on then catch up."

He always did. His life could be summarised as an endless game of catch up with the blue blur that was even now leaving his bedroom at a ludicrous speed.

Once Sonic bored of South Island, he'd fly to another island, or maybe Soleanna, he liked to stop by the festival of lights around this time of year. And Miles would follow him wherever he went, and settle into another lab nearby. Hopefully Miles would have time to clear the dust off before it was time to leave again.

Shadows were never far from the light, after all, and he was the shadow of the brightest star of all. Just because Sonic was doing nothing but kill time waiting for Eggman to strike again, that didn't mean that Miles didn't need to be nearby, facilitating Sonic's bohemian existence and reminding his friend that he was _useful_.

Plus it would be nice to get out of here before any reporters showed up.

Miles rolled off his bed, grabbing only the magazine as he left his room. Nothing worth packing in here. Each lab differed only slightly from the others anyway, and most important things he kept in the hammerspace surrounding his person. All he really needed was his plane, his fuzzy butt, and the data he'd need to take with him out of the lab to keep Eggman, and a few of the more annoying governmental agencies around the world, from trying to mess with his stuff.

:: hey

The message already hung on his screen, pink avatar making it clear who it was from. Miles leaned over and tapped in a response.

:: Good morning, Amy.

He turned back to clearing his desk, but the response came almost immediately.

:: Sonic left today?

How the heck did she always know? Her stalking skills were _scary_ sometimes.

:: Yeah, just left this morning. Off to South Island.

:: is he mad?

Miles raised an eyebrow.

:: What did you do this time?

:: nothing

:: forget it

:: nayway did you forget our deal?

:: anyway*

:: Huh? I thought you enjoyed hanging out at Gameworld with me?

She'd certainly been happy when he won that giant plush. Probably the unwanted veteran of five years in that crane machine, its more popular blue counterparts had long vanished.

She'd probably only told him to get it to mess with him too. Joke was on her, now she was stuck with the silly thing.

Still, he had to admit she'd surprised him. Not just with how happy she'd been to receive a stuffed toy bigger than the real article, but with the afternoon in general. He'd more than half expected her to spend every moment talking about Sonic, comparing Miles' childish attempts to keep her entertained with some grand gesture Sonic had pulled off during one of her often referenced dates from the rare times Sonic had actually relented in the face of her tireless pursuit.

But his friend had been remarkably considerate on the topic, barely mentioning the hero the whole afternoon and-

Ah.

:: you were going to help me with Sonic

:: remember?

:: Alright, fine. I'll talk to Sonic for you when I get to South Island.

:: oh no no no

:: not now I have seen your true power, little fox!

:: I want you to arrange the *perfect date* that Sonic cannot refuse!

Miles headbutted his desk hard enough for rings to fall out.

:: I see. And how do you expect me to do that?

:: you're the genius

:: you know that I can't do it without you

:: if I even *think* about something romantic

:: he'll run to the other side of the planet

:: and your date yesterday was amazing!

Miles snorted. She'd only given him a "B-", and even then under protest.

:: if it's you I know you'll be able to think up something Sonic will enjoy

:: even if it's with me

:: and maybe then he'll finally realise how much he likes me!

An image icon flashed up on the screen. Miles clicked it to reveal Amy knelt on her bed, hands clenched together as she made puppy hog eyes at the camera, batting her eyelashes at him on loop while her chat messages continued to scroll beneath.

:: come on please?

:: we're friends, right?

:: I'll do *anything*

He didn't _want_ anything. Miles rubbed his temples with a frown. Peace and quiet? Amy not breaking into his lab anymore?

Well… He didn't really want that either. The way things were right now wasn't _perfect._ Amy wasn't happy getting turned down by Sonic, Sonic wasn't happy getting chased by Amy, and _Miles_ wasn't happy that his workshops kept getting smashed up thanks to their drama, but…

If Sonic and Amy _did_ , somehow, hit it off successfully… What then? Regular dating? _Marriage_? What use would they have for a third wheel like him? He'd be left even more isolated than usual. And what if it backfired again? If they got mad at each other, or him… would he lose one of his friends for good? _Both_?

Miles wrapped his arms around his tails, staring at Amy's animated plea looping over and over on his screen.

Better for him that things stayed the _same_. Satellites weren't supposed to ever actually _reach_ the thing they orbited.

He shook his head, reaching for his keyboard.

:: Fine.

:: I'll come pick you up next weekend.

:: I'll let you know when once I'm set up in South Island.

:: you're the best Tails!

:: oh! I forgot

:: you look adorable in that photo by the way.

:: have fun with the reporters!

Miles groaned, reaching around the back of the machine to pull a metal cartridge drive from its base with a spark. The computer screen winked out as he slipped its core into his hammerspace.

He slowly stood, wheels in his mind spinning as he tried to cobble together a solution the whole time he ran checks on his plane.

But Miles wasn't actually the best at _anything_ , and so the perfect answer eluded him however much he tried.

Something was going to have to give.

And he was going to have to figure out which thing that was.


	6. Chapter 6

Amy Rose believed mostly in two things.

First, and most strongly of all, Amy Rose believed in love.

She had to. She believed with all her heart that her love would eventually reach Sonic, that he would love her back, ask her on a date, kiss her, and...

Well, she hadn't really thought that far ahead. Marriage? Settling down? Give up being the wind to become her rock?

She had to, right? Love could do anything, it could _certainly_ make Sonic love her more than he loved freedom. At least a little.

At least sometimes.

Well, he stayed with Tails the most. Could he at least stay with her the most instead? Maybe a little more often? Love had to be able to handle something that small. She could be generous. Six days with her a week? Five?

… Two?

Should… should she just move in with Tails?

He probably wouldn't say no if she asked. Probably wouldn't even complain if she just did it. He was so rarely _bothered_ by her it was almost insulting at times. Sometimes a girl _wanted_ people to be bothered, if only a little.

It would certainly help her see Sonic. Even if _he_ definitely needed to be less bothered by her and seeing him regularly might let her be a little less bothered by _him_.

But she would _never_ do that, because Amy Rose also believed in appearances.

Not just _looking_ cute, though she certainly devoted a good amount of time to just that with a tireless regime of exercise and fashion to try and ensure that she was as deserving of Sonic's attention as he was hers. But also to the _inner_ appearance of things. The appearance that she tried to show people in herself and others.

Amy spent a good deal of time cultivating this inner appearance as well. She had been someone too immature for Sonic, too much of a tomboy, too weak, so she'd changed. She'd dropped everything, appearance and behaviour, anything that Sonic hadn't been interested in, and she'd pushed herself hard enough in training to reach the absolute pinnacle of excellence that she could hope to achieve as a baseline mobian, strong enough and fast enough to, if only barely, compete at the same level as her hero.

Then she'd trained twice as hard to make her twelve year old self into someone mature and ladylike, to make the _real_ her something Sonic would love. She'd even developed a love for baking, because what handsome hero could resist a cake from his princess?

And just like she believed in love, Amy truly believed that if she changed the real her in just the right way, Sonic would finally love her ba- would finally get over his shyness and stop running away.

At least she hoped that's what it was. Sonic on the inside appeared in almost every way to be _exactly_ what he seemed to be at first glance. Brave and heroic, strong and free. He saved her, like he saved everyone… And he never told her to _leave_. That meant that he _cared_ , right? That he could be persuaded if she could show him that she could be someone worthy of him? Sonic _didn't_ date just any girl after all, and he was certainly famous enough that he could if wanted, even a few humans, but he didn't. Her only victory in love was that he'd only dated _her_ , so she must be pretty special.

Moving in with Tails _didn't_ show someone that was special. It showed an Amy Rose that was _desperate_.

And while Amy Rose _was_ desperate, more and more so with every failed advance, every snub, every one-sided hug, and every time the repulsion he felt for her was treated as a _joke_ , the real self that she showed the world wasn't allowed to _be_ desperate. Better to be angry at Sonic than desperate. Better to yell than cry. Better to smile than do either. Better to crush down her feelings and be _near_ him than drive him away.

Even though that was like holding her breath. Even though every now and then she had to feel or drown.

A blue and yellow biplane soared by overhead. She stood at her door, suitcase gripped in her hands as she watched it descend.

She'd been drowning for months.

She'd been so _good_.

And now she _had_ to be desperate. She was almost _thirteen_ , after all. Five years with too much fighting, too much war, too much trying to survive and make a life… And not enough love.

Did Tails hate her? Think she was a joke? Did he think she was just another sad needy girl to be saved and forgotten like Sonic had done so many times before? That she wasn't good enough for him? That she needed to _let go_?

No, Tails, like her, tried to see the good in people. He'd never teased her about it, never laughed…

Unless he was just scared to do it where she could hear?

"Hey!" Tails ran up with empty eyes and a bright smile. "Ready to go?"

Amy peered at him dubiously.

"You sure you're good to fly? You look exhausted." Amy pulled a handkerchief from her hammerspace, wiping his blackened ear with a frown. "And _greasy_."

"Sorry, tuning up the Tornado all night." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a blackened glove. "I don't think being greasy makes me fly any worse though."

"Mhm. Like you've _never_ crashed before."

"I am _not_ a bad pilot." Tails pouted and turned away, arms folded.

Amy sighed. She'd hit _that_ landmine again. She leaned forward, resting her chin on the back of his head as she wrapped her arms over his shoulders, keeping him from walking away.

"You're a great pilot, Tails."

"And I'm only here because you asked me!"

"I know."

"It's only nine times!"

"Yes, yes, you only cra-" Amy paused. "Wait, nine?"

"Well, yeah, I was doing a flight test a few days ago and…"

Amy straightened, hands on her hips.

"Tails, did you put another of your "special engines" in your plane?"

"Not... _this_ plane."

"You know, I'm pretty sure other plane manufacturers have come up with ways to test new stuff _without_ crashing it now?"

"It's _fine_."

"It's not fine. One of these times you're going to crash into the bottom of a lake or get crushed to death!"

Tails shrugged.

"Ugh, you're just impossible. I'm going to tell Sonic on you, maybe you'll listen to him."

"I just won't take you to see him!"

"Yes you will!" Amy raised her case with a scowl.

"... Fine, yes, yes I will. But you better not tell Sonic!"

"Just stop trying to get yourself killed already." Amy rolled her eyes. "And you're not going to make a delicate flower like myself carry her own luggage, are you?"

Tails stared at her half-lidded for a moment, but took the heavy case regardless.

"Amy, this is heavier than me. What are you bringing?"

"Just some spare clothes and things. Just in case."

"It's _one afternoon_."

"You just don't understand girls."

"Whatever." Tails rolled his eyes and started walking.

Amy shook her head, pulling the door shut. She couldn't help wonder which part of _Tails_ was the real one as she trotted to catch up to him.

The kind and gentle coward who only cared about his machines?

The fearless warrior that had fought alongside Sonic like a mobian possessed?

He certainly _seemed_ to be a coward, but a coward that still stood on the front lines ready to fly anyone anywhere? That flew dangerous combat missions without hesitation and test flew his own, often atrociously unreliable, designs in an endless attempt to make a biplane that could match Sonic's mach 5 speed?

He _used_ to be cool. Now he was…

Holding back?

Tails crouched and launched into the air, tails spinning as he flew up with the precision of a hummingbird to drop her bag into a compartment in the back of the plane before dropping down into the pilot seat. Amy leapt after him, catching the side of the plane to swing herself into the seat behind him.

"Ooo, comfy." She bounced.

"You'd better hope so. It's three hours to South Island."

"Ughhh. I'm going to kick your seat the whole way."

"You know there's only a seatbelt in the _front_ seat, right?"

"What?" Amy looked around in horror.

"Just kidding." Tails grinned back at her as the engine rumbled into life below them. "There's no seatbelts in the front either."

"Seriously?" Amy rolled her eyes. It made _sense_ at least. A mobian could handle a high speed impact fine, so long as they didn't hit the water, but getting trapped and crushed in wreckage would be deadly. "If you fall asleep and drown us both I'm going to be _super_ mad."

"It's called _autopilot_ , Amy." Tails gripped the yoke in both hands as the plane accelerated, then ascended, at a rate that belied its small size and archaic design. "I was actually planning on taking a nap until we got there."

"Great. Do I even get an inflight movie?"

"I think there might be a bag of peanuts Knuckles left last month if you check under the cushions."

"Gross, Tails. So is this why Sonic likes to stand up on the wing? Boredom?"

"Why? Did you want to try?"

Amy peered down at the fast approaching coastline far below.

"... Maybe later."

Tails gave her a thumbs up as he sunk down in his chair, quiet snoring emanated from it scant moments later.

Amy groaned, staring out at the endless ocean ahead as cold wind blew over the top of the cockpit, nipping at her cheeks.

The things she did for love.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey."

A finger prodded Miles' cheek, waking him from his nap. For a brief moment he tensed, muscles ready to strike before he remembered that he was _safe_. His eyes flicked open to see Amy's own green gaze close to his own. Too close. A mischievous smile adorned her lips.

"Everything okay?" Miles relaxed, his lips spreading into a smile to greet her own.

"I'm ready now."

"Huh?" Miles suppressed a yawn, uncoiling his body and tails without breaking eye contact with the hedgehog poking her head around the side of his seat.

"To do the thing!"

"What thing?"

"The wing thing! I've been sitting here doing nothing for at _least_ nine hours now, so it's either wing walking or _skydiving_."

Miles nodded, glancing past her out of the cockpit. Weather was clear, wind low, and they looked to be about thirty minutes off South Island, so not much air traffic to work around.

"Coolamundo. Climb on up."

"That's it?" Amy's eyes widened.

"Well, try to stay in the middle of the wings until you get used to it, and don't run around too much?" Miles shrugged.

Who did she think was going to be doing most of the work? Miles had been doing stuff like this for almost half a decade at this point, it wasn't like she was going to be _more_ trouble than a certain other hedgehog that didn't know how to stay still.

Amy glanced down at the ocean glittering below.

"Don't just do a barrel roll suddenly, okay?"

"We're not in combat." Miles smiled. "But okay, no rolls. I won't let you fall, I promise."

"... Okay, so I just climb on up?"

"Yep! I'll slow down a bit so you can get used to the wind."

A hand grabbed Miles' ear, swiftly followed by a knee on the opposite shoulder. He rolled his eyes, then rolled them right back down again as he considered Amy's likely reaction to him looking up in this position.

A boot to the head later, and Amy was wobbling atop the wing of the Tornado, wind whipping around her like a hurricane, even at the reduced speed, threatening to rip her from the plane at any moment.

And she laughed.

The girl in the red dress leaned into the wind like she was flying herself, arms outstretched as sky and sea rushed beneath her, yelling words Miles couldn't hear.

Mobians _enjoyed_ going fast. It was a biological disposition necessary for a species that outsped every other organism on the planet. Their brains were engineered for it, their bodies were built for it. And Amy had spent _years_ trying to push herself to the very limits, always wishing she could be faster...

So Sonic would look at her.

Miles sighed, accelerating slowly, eyes locked on her.

Girls were rarely born special among mobians compared to boys. For girls, _both_ parents needed to have the necessary genes and pass it down. If heroes like Sonic & Knuckles won the genetic lottery when it came to being on the extreme end of the spectrum in terms of speed or strength, then a woman like Rouge had to overcome the same odds twice in a row. Amy's friend Cream was a more "average" heroic specimen, able to stand toe to toe with Eggman's robot forces at the tender age of six, but still existed firmly in the lower band of "abnormal".

Amy hadn't been born special. She'd _made_ herself special. Mobians didn't generally much care for things like organised sports, but if she'd been a human she'd be an Olympian, the absolute pinnacle of physical achievement as she pushed herself tirelessly towards a height she could never reach. All for a hedgehog who barely tolerated her company.

And what about himself? Miles wasn't the fastest, but he was fast enough to keep up with Sonic with a little three dimensional movement and careful planning. He wasn't the strongest, but he was strong enough that he knew less than ten people on the planet who were even in the same ballpark. But he was sitting quietly in a lab, holding himself back for Sonic, while she was giving everything trying to reach him.

And they were both feeling the strain.

Amy shouted something inaudible. Miles reacted to the bending of her legs as she jumped, echoing her hero's acrobatics. Thanks to a nudge of the yoke she landed as neatly as if she'd been on solid ground, spinning to look down at him with a triumphant grin.

'Did you see that?'

He read her lips and smiled, shouting his own useless words of praise.

What kind of cosmic injustice was it that they couldn't just swap? He could be the fox Sonic wanted him to be - a simple gadgeteer, _dangerous_ , but not much more so than Eggman, just filling the role he'd been given. And Amy could be as great as she _deserved_ to be, fast and strong enough to stay by Sonic's side like Miles had done.

Before Sonic decided he didn't want the person Miles used to be.

Amy stood on the tip of her boot, spinning a graceful pirouette, dancing to her own rhythm from one end of the wing to the other. She spun around again, a cheeky grin on her face as she hopped back to the middle of the wings, lips moving.

'Bet you're-'

Her expression froze as her foot slid off the rounded edge of the wing. She fell backwards towards the propeller. Miles gunned the engine, the rapid acceleration throwing her the other way to slam head first into the cockpit. Rings tumbled from the side of the plane as a spiny head cracked into his face, the plane fell into an uncontrolled dive…

Miles coiled his tails around the hedgehog, pulling her off the controls as he grabbed the yoke, easing it back until the plane levelled out once more, a thousand feet lower but none the worse for wear. Everything back to normal as quickly as it had started.

"Well that was exciting!" He laughed, hitting the autopilot and turning his attention to his passenger. "Are you okay?"

Amy nodded. He could feel her heart pounding through the fur of his tails as he twisted her upright, depositing her on the seat in front of him.

"That was _terrifying_!" Amy grabbed both tails between her arms and squeezed them against her chest. "How does he do that all the time?"

"I'm _not_ a plushie." Miles frowned at her. His short-tailed friends seemed to have trouble recognising his tails as being part of him.

"Deal with it." Amy stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm traumatised! I thought I was gonna get blended!"

"I _said_ I wouldn't let you fall," Miles huffed.

"Well I fell in _here_ , didn't I?"

"I guess I should have been more specific." Miles flattened his ears with a sigh.

Amy leaned closer in the already cramped space of his pilot seat.

"Thanks for saving me." She touched her fingers to his forehead, pulling a pink spine free with a wince. "I'm sorry I goofed around and you got hurt."

"Huh? That's fine, I've had worse." Miles smiled.

"You _always_ say that."

"Because it's true. Now are you planning on getting back to your seat? We're going to have to land soon."

"Mmm…" Amy tapped her lips, then glanced over the side of the cockpit to the ocean below. A small shiver ran down her body. "Nope."

"I'll hold your hand if you're scared, it'll be fine."

"Scared?" Amy sniffed. "I'm _freezing_. You have any idea how _cold_ it was up there?"

Miles groaned, gloved hand pressing against his forehead. "I'm not a blanket either!"

"Be a gentleman!"

"I need to fly the plane!"

"Then fly it around me!"

"I can't _see_ around you."

"Are you calling me fat?"

Miles pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

"Fine. Hold still."

"Whah- hey!" Amy cried out in protest as Miles slipped himself out of the cockpit.

"There we go." He rested his fingertips on the wing as the wind tore through his fur, one foot dangling out over oblivion as he yelled into the cockpit. "Scootch back in the chair!"

He hopped back in, this time in front of Amy.

"Oof, tighter than the last time I did this." Had he actually grown? Probably just the way his tails were packed in between the two of them.

"Oh, this used to be a single seater, didn't it?" Amy's words tickled the back of his ear.

She released her grip and he took the opportunity to shuffle back to a slightly more comfortable distance from the controls. He sighed. It had been the tails after all.

"Yeah, I based it on Sonic's plane initially. Used to fly like this with him a lot back when…"

Back when he'd been Sonic's _real_ partner, not just his tech support.

"So, you were really good up there."

"Oh har har har."

"No, I mean it. You're a natural. Why don't I take you up again sometime and you can get some practise in?"

"Mmm... Maybe over a nice grass zone."

"Hah. Probably for the best. Oh, hey." He pointed. "There's South Island now."

Amy pressed forward, head on his shoulder and spines in his neck. "Oof, Green Hill Zone's still looking bad, huh?"

Miles nodded. "There's a bit more plant growth on the border, but the sandworms are making land reclamation difficult. I've been working with the clan heads on a few potential solutions but…"

"But fixing things always takes more time than breaking them." She sighed, leaning back once more, grabbing a tail as an afterthought.

Miles busied himself with pre-landing checks, but he thought he heard her say one more thing softly behind him.

"I should know all about that, after all."


	8. Chapter 8

"Seriously?"

Amy glared at the little fox rubbing the back of his head beside her.

Was this intentional? Was he making fun of her? Did he _want_ her to fail?

"I know it's not the first place you'd think of, but hear me out."

A beach.

Of all the places in the world that Sonic _wouldn't_ visit, _wouldn't_ feel comfortable, _wouldn't_ feel like hanging out, a place that was mostly _water_ was top of the list.

"Well?" She folded her arms, still glowering at Tails.

"See that?" Tails turned, pointing with a grin.

A beach ball bounced off her head, coming dangerously close to bursting against her upturned quills. A young wolf yelled a quick apology as he ran past. Amy took a deep breath.

"The big tent?" She breathed through gritted teeth.

"The grand opening of the South Island All You Can Eat Beach Buffet, the only eatery with a hundred different toppings, and for today only? Competitive eating. Winner. Eats. _Free_."

Amy's mouth fell open.

"Tails, you absolute diabolical _genius_."

"Right?" The fox straightened with a smug grin. "Sonic's been in there for the last _two hours_ , ever since it opened. Once he finishes, which should be in…" Tails pulled a pocket watch out of nowhere for a moment. "Thirteen minutes, he's going to want to take it _slow_ for a while."

"And when he comes out?"

"Just follow the plan!" Tails held out a scrap of paper. "Now we're going to want to set you up somewhere..."

* * *

Eleven minutes and some urgent coaching by Tails later, Amy sat alone on a towel, working on a tan that mobians couldn't get.

Hard to believe earlier this morning she'd been freezing her tail off and now she was sunning herself in a swimsuit on the far side of the equator.

Waiting for Sonic to show up.

Her heart was pounding harder than when she'd fallen out of the plane.

Well, when Tails caught her at least. That had been embarrassing. And exhilarating, at least when they were safely on the ground and her legs stopped being like jelly.

Amy smiled. Tails had said she was good, a _natural_. If she got good enough… Would Sonic fly her someday?

Hm. Amy's smile dimmed a little. He'd probably prefer to be the one on the wings. Maybe she should learn to fly instead?

Wait. He'd be coming out soon. Keep looking ahead, don't stare, don't look tense, don't jump up, don't-

"Amy?"

Act casual casual casual casual.

"Huh?" She looked up. Casual. Oh Penders he looked terrified. Casual. "Oh, hey Sonic! Long time no see." She smiled. "What are you doing here?"

Sonic relaxed, walking closer. Well, kind of waddled closer. He'd been chowing down on chilli dogs all morning after all.

"Nothing special." Oh Hoshino, he was talking to her and looking at her and- casual. "Just checking out the new chilli dog place. So are you out here on vacation?"

"Yep, just wanted to get somewhere warm for a little while, y'know?" She smiled again. Was she supposed to not smile again? Was that-

"I know that feeling! Say, do you want a drink?" He jerked his thumb towards a nearby shack made out of equal parts driftwood and brightly coloured signage. "I'm feeling the need to wash down those last few chilli dogs!"

"Uh, sure, Sonic!" Amy went to stand up, but the blue hedgehog raised his hand with a smile oh gods he was smiling at her.

"You wait right there, I'll be right back!" He winked, causing Amy's cheeks to rebel against her casualness before setting off at a, for him, meandering pace.

When she was certain he wasn't looking, Amy leapt into the air in a fist pump that could have been used in a street fight, barely suppressing a squeal of delight.

Tails had been right on _everything_. He'd said to stay cool and let Sonic approach her. He'd even said he'd offer her a drink. This was it, they were basically on a date already! But now she needed to coax him to come with her and how should she look at him- did she look okay? Amy glanced towards the drink shack and back at her feet. Casual don't chase him, don't seem too interested, don't chase him off, but he wasn't back yet and where was he?

Amy took a deep breath, making shooing motions at a little avian girl who had paused to watch her, an ice cream cone wrapped in her feathery fingers. She needed to calm down. Sonic would be here any minute and she'd be so happy she could die and everyone would see her with Sonic and they'd sit and she'd be considerate and calm and he'd love her and-

He still wasn't here.

It had been _minutes_ now. She looked up again. Surely even at a walk he'd be on his way back now, right?

He wasn't.

Well, maybe he was just taking the long way round? Just because she could see the counter from here. Just because he was nowhere to be seen. It didn't mean anything and he'd be here any minute. Amy smiled. Any minute.

Any minute.

She shouldn't have tried to go with him. She'd been told to play it casual and that had been too dangerous and she'd blown it and she'd chased him away again and it was all her fault and-

Gloved fingers brushed her wet cheeks. Amy looked up to tired eyes and a sad smile.

"Hey." Tails held out an ice cream cone, plopping down in the sand next to her.

"How-" Amy swallowed against the lump in her throat. "How far did he run?"

How far did she chase him this time when all she wanted was-

"Not sure. He got the drinks, but no sign of where he went after that." Tails shrugged. "No sign of Eggman, so probably not kidnapped… Sorry."

Amy shrugged, head rested on her knees. "Not your fault."

It was hers. It was Sonic's. How _could_ he? Stupid jerk running off and leaving her. She'd just wanted to spend a little time together. Was that too much to ask? He spent time with that _cat_ when she came over last time. What did _she_ have that Amy didn't? Apart from a title. And magic fire powers. And-

"Cheers." Tails tapped his ice cream cone against hers. "Mm. Been awhile since I had vanilla." He rubbed his chin. "Or ice cream, I guess."

Amy sighed, taking a lick of her own cone. Her favourite. Of course it was. Where had he even- Oh. She looked away from the shack, taking another lick. It reminded her that she hated him. For having it _easy_. He just stayed in his lab doing smart guy stuff all the time and… And now here he was being nice to the dumb girl. Dumb girl who couldn't even get a guy to stay on the same _beach_ as her.

"... I should have followed your advice better."

"It wasn't your fault." He lied.

Or was it an omission? Not your fault "this time"? She'd spent most of her life chasing Sonic away and now all she had to do was sit and he'd never come near her again and-

Tails blinked up at her.

On the end of his black nose was a splodge of ice cream.

Amy snorted, pulling her handkerchief from nothing and wiping it across his nose before he could - no, probably not before he _could_ react. He didn't even have the decency to look surprised. Those big blue eyes that never seemed to smile along with him.

"Something on my face?" Tails tilted his head.

"...You're going to need to eat a lot more ice cream." She ruffled his head, smirking. "You need the practise!"

"You just want more ice cream."

"Who said I don't? I'm a sweet and delicate flower. I need sweet things for fuel."

"Otherwise all that's left is the 'delicate' part?" Tails stared at her half-lidded.

"That's righ- hey!" She frowned. "You trying to say I'm not delicate?"

"You're one of the toughest people I know, Amy Rose." He smiled again. At least with his mouth.

"You better believe it!" Amy grinned. "But I'm still delicate, you know?"

"Like a flower, yes." Tails nodded gravely and popped the last of his cone into his mouth. "I'll be back in a bit, alright?"

The fox hopped to his feet, tails brushing sand off one another as he turned to leave. A hammer hooked under his chin.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Amy raised a stern eyebrow.

"To get the Tornado? I need to run you home, right?"

So she could cry at home? Sit in a plane for three hours feeling miserable to an evening of her and a tub of ice cream in winter? Amy shook her head.

"You're not getting off that easy, buster. I have an entire _list_ here given to me by my adorable friend-"

"I am not adorable, I'm-"

" _Adorable,_ sweet, friend, and I'm sure he and I would both _die of sadness_ if I didn't get to use it to its full intended capacity."

"Ughhhh. Fine."

Amy giggled, holding the piece of paper aloft as the hammer disappeared.

"Well, gee, it sure is turning out to be hot today. What do you think about paddling along the shore in…" She tilted the note with a frown for a moment. "That direction? Gauge response."

"You're not supposed to say that last-"

"I'll hold your hand if you're worried about the water. Come on, wink here, it'll be an adventure!"

Tails stared at her, shaking his head.

"Why am I even nice to you?"

"Beats me! Oh… Wait, now I remember." She extended her hand with a grin. "'Thank you, oh cute and generous Amy, for making me do fun stuff and to stop being an old fuddy duddy in my lab all day!'"

"I'm younger than you!" Tails huffed, hands on his hips.

"Are you sure? Maybe you're just a really short old geezer?"

Tails stuck his tongue out at her, but took her fingers in his own nonetheless.

"I am _so_ splashing you when we get to the water."

"Oh, you are _on_."


	9. Chapter 9

Miles prided himself on his mind.

There was nothing particularly magical about it - at least so far as he was aware, breaking mundane physics constituted a lot of what his social circle did on a regular basis. But thinking as fast as he did, being able to hold as much in his thoughts as he could, he made connections and predictions faster than others, figured things out quicker, and avoided pitfalls that others fell into by virtue of an attention to detail that was considerably more unusual among people he knew than actual magic.

In a world where speed mattered, being able to reach answers and act on them before anyone else was an insurmountable advantage, and that let Miles remain in control. And there were few things that mattered more to Miles than staying in control and _safe_.

Eggman was _neither_ , and Miles had no illusions about the fate of the world if he ever followed suit.

But his intelligence, mundane and unmagical as it was, was not perfect. He wasn't _always_ right, he sometimes wandered off onto mental dead ends by going in wrong directions that lesser minds had never even thought of, and he missed crucial details at times because of the sheer number of _other_ details he was considering at any one point.

But most often he was surprised by _people_.

This had improved a little, the more time he spent around people, but he was what others would call "poorly socialised". Abandoned by his parents, he had been a four year old cub - by current estimates - the first time he'd ever met another mobian.

They'd tried to kill him.

He'd not really expected that at the time. But it had been the first data point for a model that had served him well, and in turn provided him with a great deal of data about military technology, aviation, and reverse engineering, right up until there were no mobians left to try and kill him, and the rest of the world was left wondering where the Kukku Empire had gone.

The second time he'd met mobians had been when he'd left home, trying to find people like himself and learning that there were _no_ people like himself. Two tailed foxes, and foxes in general, were a population of "one".

It might have been better if he'd found himself among wolves, who might have looked past his differences to the similarities they shared. But the mobians in the clans he met, while not actively trying to kill him, had made absolutely sure he was aware that he was not welcome, wanted, nor tolerated in their territory. Especially when he spent his time working with machines that had by then become synonymous with the rise of the Eggman.

But he'd quietly persevered, despite their hostility, and his model of the world had improved once again, this time covering people who only wanted to _hurt_ him. Miles didn't mind that too much. He'd suffered far worse than a few children with sticks after all, but fortunately for the world, before he'd had time to decide on an appropriate response to their aggression, he'd met Sonic.

Sonic had surprised him again. He _hadn't_ wanted to hurt the nearly mute young fox poking around his plane, at once similar and different to the weapons of war he'd tinkered with in the past. And when Miles had accompanied him against the mechanical forces of Eggman's invasion, he hadn't wanted to hurt _Eggman_ either.

Miles hadn't understood it. Honestly, he still didn't, but he had willingly conformed to Sonic's curious philosophy all the same, taking on faith both that humans and mobians were things that should not be killed regardless of how much of a threat they were, and that he should try and save as many lives as possible - a dichotomy which had left him perpetually conflicted as to why Eggman was still allowed to live, given the massive cost of mobian life linked to his endless schemes.

There had been a few hiccups here and there, where Miles had been alone and quietly concluded that a more permanent solution had been optimal for minimising suffering, but for the most part he had found Sonic's martial pacifism to be _useful_ , a good way to keep himself from making the mistake of _causing_ suffering for a perceived greater good. And once he'd wrapped his head around it, Sonic had turned out to be the most predictable person of all, a dependable anchor for his new schema…

And his first and most cherished friend, whose naïve worldview, however impractical, was something special that Miles would give up anything to protect.

Until Sonic had decided he didn't need him anymore, marking the second and significantly more traumatising time in four years of friendship that Miles had been legitimately surprised by his hero's behaviour.

Salt water sprayed over his head from a well placed kick. Miles squinted at the perpetrator before slicing through a wave with his tails, displacing considerably more than his own bodyweight of liquid in response.

Amy Rose had been surprising him with alarming regularity for almost the entire time he'd known her.

She'd been smaller than him when they first met, a small and weak baseline girl with a crush on his hero. He'd let her stay at his lab a few times during that first winter, since she'd had nowhere else to go. He'd even given her his old hammer to defend herself, since Sonic's worldview _didn't_ mesh well with crushing threats to death with blunt objects.

"No fair using your tails!" Amy shook water from her spines, sticking her tongue out at him, swimsuit now drenched with water from its little white skirt to its pleated red shoulders.

When he thought she was going to cry, she laughed. When he thought she was going to laugh, she got angry. And when he thought she was going to get angry, she smiled through her tears. It was almost like she was confusing solely to spite him.

A rotund lifeguard - a necessary feature among mobians who wanted to swim in the water; only the chunkiest or strongest could overcome the natural tendencies of a species whose average member was about as dense as rock - turned to stare at the two of them playing in the surf, but his expression changed the moment he recognised Miles. He nodded respectfully before turning his attention to other not-quite-swimmers.

Miles _could_ swim, after all. His tails were every bit as good at propelling him through water as air, and the lifeguard knew that. He was a _celebrity_. Long gone were the days that people would throw rocks at him to drive him away from their villages.

All he'd had to do was save the world. Multiple times. To get second-hand famous.

"Wow! Come get a look at this!" Amy darted down into the water a moment, holding aloft a large blue conch. Her lips formed a perfect "o" as the sun reflecting off the water illuminated her face in countless dancing lights.

He'd expected her to _leave_. Like Tiara, Madonna, whatever that other one's name was, brief sparks of interest that died out in the face of Sonic's preference for liberty over love. He'd assumed she would eventually stop trying to balance real life with whatever mad alternative Sonic offered to people caught up in his influence.

Yet here she was.

"Wow." Miles glanced up. "That's a pretty-"

Amy upended the conch over his head. She was still laughing by the time the water flowed out of his ears.

Annoying the _Penders_ out of him.

"Gotcha! Ah! Noo!" Amy shrieked as forty four pounds of highly compact predator pounced at her, sending them both into the water.

Miles landed on top of her, hands by her neck, teeth bared. His tails lanced down to wrap around her arms and chest.

And she grinned at him from the sand.

Miles blinked under the water, reaching up a finger to poke her gently on the nose.

He was _safe_ , after all. He was in control.

He stood, lifting her with him out of the surf. Amy grinned down at him as she dangled from his grip, making a show of kicking helplessly as she laughed.

"Alright! I give!" She shook her head, straining to blow seawater off her nose while wriggling. "Didn't realise you were half _octopus_ , you brute!"

Miles grabbed her by the waist, depositing her carefully onto the shallows as he released her from tails that he knew from experience could have crushed her in a heartbeat.

Amy sighed, the aftermath of laughter as she stretched out, dripping wet as she pulled him from the water by his wrist.

"Well I'm not sure we can count that as part of your original date plan, but we'll call it extra credit." She paused, looking at him. "You okay, Tails?"

"Huh?" Miles looked up, smiling once more. "Sorry, just… thinking."

"This is what happens when you don't get your sleep." Amy tutted. "Don't worry, I have the _perfect_ solution."

"Oh really?"

"Yep! Next thing!" She grinned, holding the sheet of paper in damp fingers. "See? This wasn't so bad. Do not say this if an orca attacks." She paused. "What is with him and killer whales anyway?"  
"They _never_ forget." Miles shook his head gravely.

Amy raised an eyebrow but raised the page once more without further comment. "Hey, what's that over there? Point."

She looked around blankly. Miles took her hand and pointed it in the right direction, rolling his eyes.

"I knew that. Where was- ah. It looks like there's some kind of event on. Would you like to go and see?"

"You know this wasn't supposed to be word for word." Miles frowned at her. _Especially_ the directions.

"It's more fun this way. You wouldn't understand." Amy waved a hand airily. "Ah, look, it's an aquarium! It says that couples can get in free. Let's go!" She blinked at the page. "An aquarium?"

"Well, you liked looking at the fish last week." Miles fidgeted. She was onto him.

"You thought Sonic would want to come around an aquarium with me?"

"He... would if it was free entry?" Miles shrugged.

A side effect of his own early life, Sonic tended to be on the frugal side, even now. The word "free" held an inescapable lure for him on several levels.

"True enough, I guess." Amy nodded thoughtfully. "Well, let's go!"

Miles swallowed drily as he was dragged along behind her.

Yes, this was _supposed_ to be his perfect crime. A cunning betrayal at a level of villainy Amy could never begin to suspect. He'd even expended a small fortune and several days setting everything up behind the scenes. A grand opening, a couples weekend for a local aquarium all arranged with flawless precision.

But now he was stuck desperately trying to hide all evidence, because Sonic had surprised him once again.

Because this had _not_ been set up to be a perfect date.

A light suspension bridge effect from being near the water together, followed by a highly public shared activity that Sonic would find mildly boring, with, most importantly, _no_ quiet moments alone together where any "funny stuff" might happen. Like kissing, which Miles was fairly certain was a thing.

He'd carefully planned around his friend's tolerances and preferences to engineer the perfect _failure_ , neither progressing nor damaging their relationship, a far cry short of the grand romantic dates she would have enjoyed in the past and had requested he engineer.

Now he was just waiting for her to notice.


	10. Chapter 10

"So… Amy's pretty mad, huh?"

"Mm?" Miles glanced up from the circuit board he was working on to affix the blue hedgehog with a cool gaze. "Did somebody say something?"

"Oh come on, little buddy, not you too!"

"Sonic, you disappeared for _three days_. Nobody knew what happened to you, I even sent a spybot into Eggman's fortress to make sure you hadn't been kidnapped. I saw Eggman in his _underwear_ because of you, Sonic. Of course I'm mad!"

"It's not my fault!" Sonic raised his hands defensively. "I was _just_ grabbing something to drink because the chilidog place's soda machine wasn't working!"

Miles nodded. He knew that much perfectly well. He'd been the one who broke it. "And then…?"

"Then I ended up in this far out world! I met with a nymph called Calypsa and-"

Miles raised his hand, pressing palm to fuzzy face with an exasperated sigh.

"This is _exactly_ the same story you told me the _last_ time you disappeared."

"Huh? No, that time I was the real King Arthur, and-"

"Did you ditch Amy that time too? Is that why she smashed up my lab looking for you?"

"She- she did, huh?" Sonic's grin turned shaky. "I didn't… know… about that. Eh heh."

"So you _did_?" Miles shook his head. "Sonic, you _can't_ keep doing this to her."

"Huh? What do you mean, Tails?" Sonic tilted his head, eyebrow raised.

Miles sighed.

"Forget it."

He was hardly blameless himself at this point, after all. Sonic had just _bailed_ on Amy, _he_ was the one who intentionally set her up for the unromantic date in the first place. Just the two of them playing and having fun instead of doing romantic… date… stuff. He was probably hammer on sight for her too, next time she saw him.

"So… you'll help me out?" Sonic shuffled closer, eyes sparkling.

"Huh?" Miles perked his ears. "With what?"

"With Amy, bud! Just… talk to her! Last time she almost got me!"

Liar. He could walk on his hands faster than Amy could sprint. That was part of the problem, Miles was _pretty_ sure she calmed down faster when she actually managed to get a hit or two in. He'd had plenty of experience with that the _last_ time Sonic had roped him into dealing with an upset Amy.

"Come oooon, old buddy, old pal. Pretty please?"

"No way, Sonic." Miles folded his arms with a frown. "You're going to have to deal with Amy _yourself_ this time. I'm _not_ helping you, no matter what."

* * *

Sometimes Miles wondered if he was too much of a pushover.

Standing outside Amy's house wearing a scarf against the snow and driving wind, and an armoured grey coat against the inevitable bruising his ribs would receive, this seemed like a good data point in support of this particular hypothesis.

But nevertheless, Miles extended his hand, straining to try and reach the buzzer of Amy's apartment and failing miserably. Why she insisted on living in human territories with their giant stairs and unreachable buttons was beyond him. Eventually he grabbed the railing with a tail and swung himself up on top of it, wrapping his second tail around the other way to anchor him to the icy metal as he stretched up to press the button with an outstretched fingertip.

Success, a buzzing came from the door speaker. Miles slid down the railing, boots biting into the slippery surface of the doorstep once more. He could just imagine Amy using her hammer to whack the button. He smiled faintly at the thought as he waited, snowflakes lazily drifting down to settle against his head, white on orange.

… Nothing. He flicked his ear as a snowflake drifted inside, disturbing the delicate white fur within.

Was she at work?

It was a thing he assumed happened. He knew she _had_ a job, after all, somehow convincing humans to employ a girl whose height and age both screamed to their instincts that they should do no such thing, however more technical terms like "maturation rate" and "competence" might suggest otherwise.

Did Amy have… human friends? He assumed she must have a few. Did they treat her like humans treated him? Adoring patronisation? Was she just some mascot? Did strangers pat her head, giants crowding around her while she was terrified to move for fear of what strength that could smash metal might do to flesh?

Miles snorted, stomping an avalanche off his fur as wind blew fresh flakes onto his cheek. The thought of Amy Rose, hero of the mobian territories, just tolerating someone patting her head without either a hammer to the knee or a spine through a finger seemed ludicrous. He'd just head by her workplace with the _Vortex_ and…

The speaker crackled into life, startling him out of his train of thought.

" _Sorry! Sorry! I had my hands full and she-... Are you still there?"_

Oh great. Was that a "push to talk" button? Miles lifted off with a sigh, sending snow spraying out across the seemingly, hopefully, deserted street with his spinning tails.

" _Hello?"_

"Hey, Amy." Miles murmured, nose pressed up against the freezing metal of the speaker to make himself heard. "It's-"

" _Tails? I'll be right down!"_

Well that was convenient. She could just run down and hammer him here rather than him having to figure out where she worked. Miles dropped to the floor once more, blowing air into his cupped hands and rubbing his nose. Figured the one place he didn't have fur was the part that kept getting the cold on it.

A light turned on in the window above the door. Miles stood back a safe distance in preparation.

Strange how society worked. Even an average human could probably kick down a typical door like this. Someone as strong as Amy could _certainly_ do it, probably bare handed. But because of what that door _represented_ , there was this shared pretence. People could be safe in their homes behind this thin barrier of glass and plastic, so long as everyone was willing to pretend. Some had been pretending so long that they had _forgot_ they were pretending.

Well, when Eggman got bored of killing mobians and turned his attention to his fellow humans once more they'd probably remember soon enough. Miles put on a smile as the door opened, giving a little wave to the hedgehog wearing an oversized human t-shirt that draped down to her knees, cinched at the waist with a bright red sash.

"Tails! Oh wow, it's really coming down, isn't it?" Amy blinked up at the snow with a shiver.

"Hey, Amy. It's fine. I just-"

"Don't just stand there! Come on in already, it's freezing!" Amy leaned forward, toeing the threshold with her socks as she tried to grab at his jacket without stepping outside.

"Oh… uh, okay." Miles shuffled forward. He didn't actually feel the cold much, short of getting sprayed by liquid nitrogen, which had happened to him more times than he thought was strictly reasonable, but he also didn't really have a reason to stay outdoors and make Amy catch a cold while he presented her second-hand non-apology.

"So why are you here? Eggman attacking? Alien invasion?" Amy closed the door behind him. "What's the emergency?"

She didn't _seem_ mad. At least not yet. Miles flicked snow off his jacket to the doormat as he stared down the drab hallway to the various numbered doors within.

"Well..." Miles followed Amy as she hopped over to the stairwell. "Sonic's back."

"Oh?" Amy paused, glove resting on the bannister without looking at him.

"He says he's sorry for ditching you," Miles lied, flinching in readiness. "And he says that he just came back from saving mntolympssthrchsnsvr." He squeezed his eyes shut.

"He said what?"

Miles squeezed open one eye. Amy had instantly crossed the intervening space between them like a ghost in a horror movie, wide-eyed stare unblinking as she stared down at him. He squeezed the eye shut again, taking a slow, steadying breath.

"He just… came back from… saving mount Olympus as its chosen saviour." He gritted his teeth, instinctively drawing his fluffy tails up to absorb the impact.

A hand laid heavy upon his head, an explosive rush of air escaping Amy's nostrils. He flinched lower.

"And you decided to come out and tell me this, in person, _in the middle of a blizzard_ , because...?"

The anticipation was almost worse than the hitting at this point.

"... So you'd have someone you could be-... mad at."

The hand brushed across his head.

...Gently? Miles opened his eyes to see Amy's face contorted in something closer to guilt than anger for a moment before it was replaced by a scowl. She pinched her thumb and forefingers down on the tips of his ears.

"Ah?"

"You're an idiot."

"Huh?" He went to flick an ear in confusion only to find it held fast. "You're... not mad?"

"Well, of course I'm mad." Amy frowned at him. "You know that's the same excuse he gave me the last time he ditched me?"

Miles nodded as best he could.

"But I'm not that mad at _you_ obviously."

"You're not?" She _really_ needed to let go of his ears.

"Well of course not. _We_ had fun, right? And finally managed to figure out that fish's name!" She grinned. It didn't quite reach her eyes this time.

"It- it was okay?"

"Oh stop fishing for compliments, You get a 'C+'." Amy finally released him, turning back to the stairs with a smirk. "Now let's go, it's freezing down here."

"Oh, uh, I was just… going to leave?"

"In the middle of a blizzard?" Amy stared at him half-lidded. "Get moving before I whack you."

"Oh… okay." Miles trotted after her, straining to clamber up stairs designed for people more than twice his height with a sigh.

Once more, Amy Rose had surprised him.

"You know, I think this is the first time you've ever come to visit," Amy said conversationally as she climbed the stairs. "Usually I'm the one coming to see you."

Well, coming to see Sonic, at least. Miles glanced from one oversized door to the next. Living near so many people was about as far from his own living environment as one could imagine.

"Here we go." Amy produced a set of keys from nowhere and hopped onto an old chair seemingly left for that very purpose as she slipped it into one of many near identical locks. "I'm back!"

She hopped down.

"Come on in. Either space your boots or put 'em in the caddy there." She waved idly. "And coat on the heater so it can dry-" She sniffed the air. "Oh no!" She ran off, leaving Miles stood awkwardly in the doorway as it clicked shut behind him with a certain sense of doom.

The apartment was a mess.

Not in the way he was accustomed to, with all the useful stuff within a tails' length of a workbench, organised in a way only someone like himself could keep track of. No, the apartment was in that sense quite clean and orderly, with only a few things out of place here and there showing signs of recent use. But the furniture itself was all over the place. Mobian chairs sat around a human coffee table, giant sofas and enormous screens echoed by oversized cabinets and a tiny - in comparison - stepladder for reaching their contents. Amy's home was full of constant compromises she'd made between living among humanity and being able to live herself.

"I'm sorry, Miss Amy!" A familiar voice came from the other room. "I tried, but you know I can't reach the stove!"

"It's _fine_ , Cream." The pink hedgehog wandered back into the main room once more, a plate of slightly darkened cookies gripped in an oven mitt. "We'll just let these cool off, they'll be fine with some cocoa."

The eponymously coloured rabbit walked into the room a moment later, a batter-stained pink apron draped over her dress. She paused the moment she saw Miles, waving a hand with a bright smile.

"Hi, Mister Tails! Are you visiting Miss Amy today too?"

"Hi, Cream." Miles tensed. Cream was six years old, a peace-loving, sweet and innocent girl with a happy homelife and loving family. "Cheese not with you today?"

Cream shook her head with a smile. "He doesn't like the cold much, so he's staying home with mama."

Miles nodded blandly. In short, Cream was almost his complete opposite in every respect. She made him more than a little uncomfortable.

"Come in and sit down, Tails." Amy waved at the coffee table, sliding the plate of cookies onto a wicker mat with practised grace. "Cream, weather's looking like it might be too bad to take you home tonight. I'll call your mom in a bit to let her know, okay?"

"Okay!" Cream smiled easily.

"I could take you home if you like?" Miles piped up, raising a gloved hand.

"You think _you're_ going anywhere in this weather?" Amy glared at him. "Nuh uh. _You're_ grounded too, fly-boy."  
Miles went to speak up again, after all, he'd flown in _far_ worse conditions and it barely even qualified as a blizzard-

Amy frowned, and he rapidly revised his argument into a meek "okay". She nodded in grim satisfaction.

"Great! Why don't you two sit down and I'll grab that cocoa, alright?"

And so Miles found himself sat opposite Cream, who was playing with the orange tips of her long ears as she kicked her feet, looking around without a care in the world.

"So… how's it going?" He rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly.

He was going to get Sonic for this.


	11. Chapter 11

Amy tried very hard to be a good person.

Not just _seem_ like a good person. If she had to choose between _appearing_ bad and _being_ good, she liked to think she'd choose the latter every time.

And sure, she wasn't Sonic, endlessly roaming the earth waiting for trouble to involve himself with, or Knuckles, saddled with a great responsibility in protecting the Master Emerald on its flying island. But she tried to make the people around her happier, if only by being nice, if only by helping with what she could manage to do to help them. That was the small heroism even she could do.

Sometimes Amy Rose felt like a bad person.

And this, more often than not, related to the orange fox currently sat on her sofa, chatting stiffly with the rabbit curled up on the cushion beside him as the pair watched a cartoon on her TV.

This was at least partly because, if she was honest, most of her friends didn't take her very seriously. Her love for Sonic was treated as a joke, his constant rejec- _shyness_ was a joke. Her plans for getting Sonic to look at her were a joke. Sometimes they even thought _Sonic_ was a joke, and that was worst of all. Even Cream thought she was too obsessed at times. And when she got angry…

That was a joke too. So what if she tried to hit Sonic, or Cream? She'd never catch them anyway. _She_ was a joke after all. So what if she hit Knuckles or Big? They were tough enough that a girl like her could hit them as hard as she could and never drop a single ring. It wasn't _serious_ , it didn't _matter_.

But Tails took almost _everything_ seriously, in that calm, placid way of his, even her. He wasn't necessarily on _her_ side - he was on Sonic's side, he was _here_ because he was on Sonic's side, but at least he never treated her like a joke.

And he never ran away. Even though she _knew_ he wasn't as sturdy as Knuckles, even though she _knew_ she hurt him or she watched his face fall when she broke some gizmo he'd been working on for months and at the time it didn't matter because she was _angry_ but then she _felt_ bad but he never got mad at her, he never told her to stop visiting his lab...

And he came here thinking she would hurt him.

She almost did.

What kind of weirdo was he that he came to tell her in person when he expected to get hit with a hammer? What kind of monster was she for _wanting to_? A joke stopped being a joke when there were consequences.

A tail coiled around her waist to absent-mindedly pluck a cookie from the dish.

"Hey!" Amy snapped.

"Ah! Sorry!" Tails flinched, and she hated him for it.

"Use your _hands_." Amy huffed, hands on hips. "And no more, dinner's almost ready."

She wasn't _really_ angry. If he really wanted the burnt cookie he was now clutching in both hands with a forlorn expression then he _could_. He kept getting skinnier every year as it was. But Amy Rose was responsible and mature, and responsible and mature girls didn't let people sneak cookies before dinner.

How was he still awake anyway? Tails usually only lasted a few minutes in front of a TV before dozing off, and she doubted it was because he was particularly invested in "the Adventures of Rainbow the Pony".

Or could it be the company? Amy stole glances at the pair as she cleaned away mugs and slid the remaining cookies out of reach of any sneaky fingers. Or… whatever was going on at the end of those tails.

Cream, as usual when Rainbow was on, sat in smiling attendance, tiny against the massive sofa as she cheerfully explained three seasons of context with a level of dedication only a six year old could muster to her fluffy couchmate.

Tails, on the other hand, spent more time glancing at the rabbit beside him than he did at the screen, ears stiff upright and still gripping that cookie in front of him like a shield.

Oh ho? Perhaps her little friend wasn't too smart for girls after all? No wonder he'd wanted to give her a ride home. Amy smirked to herself as she clattered into the kitchen, sliding mugs onto the counter on tiptoe before grabbing a well used mitt to take a sizzling pizza from the oven.

It wasn't a bad match. Cream was younger, but she was a sweet and thoughtful girl with a gentle temperament, and no slouch in the heroing department in the past, even if she hadn't really done much lately, and cute too. Amy could see why Tails liked her.

Tails was... perhaps a little _too_ mature for his age. He was a little too mature for _Amy's_ age, and a little on the spacey side at times, but he could be incredibly sweet and attentive, smart, funny... and even if he was a _little_ on the timid side lately, he still had courage when it mattered the most. Amy shook her head. The only real obstacle was that Cream, like herself, lived in a single fixed place, while he was like a smaller copy of Sonic, roaming the world...

Wait… Amy raised her plates in triumph. This was _perfect_. She could do something nice for Tails to make up for the way she treated him sometimes, and if Cream decided she liked him back the two of them would make _such_ a cute couple together and she'd be a matchmaker of love and that would be so _romantic_.

And if the two of them were an item, her best friend and Sonic's best friend then _they_ could go with them on double dates to chaperone! And Sonic would get used to seeing her on dates, and see how Tails treated a girl and maybe realise that _she_ was a girl and...

Yes, things were going to be just great.

* * *

Miles didn't _dislike_ Cream.

Well, he tried to make a habit of not disliking people too much in general. His social circle included multiple people that had tried to kill him, take his stuff, or worst of all, insulted his skills as a mechanic. And more often than not these had been the same people he had been forced to entrust with his life at a later date thanks to the sheer scale of Sonic's world-saving activities. He might not _like_ people, and he might not _trust_ people, but even Eggman, who did all three of those things on a regular basis, was someone he could _work_ with.

Still didn't like him though.

It was almost like international politics. A few wars in the past didn't preclude a temporary alliance being necessary in future when an eldritch monstrosity crawled out of the ocean and started eating people.

… He wasn't sure if the analogy broke down there or not.

Cream, of course, didn't do any of these things. On the rare occasions he didn't avoid her entirely she was a relentless force of positivity. At least on the outside.

And, like Amy, he had no idea what _she_ wanted from him either. She was a friend of a friend, and a friend of a friend was a stranger who could still manage to ruin his relationship with his friend if he messed up dealing with them.

So he _waited_ to be useful.

He'd shown, hopefully polite, interest in what she was watching. People liked it when you were interested in them. Hopefully not so much he'd interfered with her viewing. He quietly categorised the particulars of Rainbow and her unlikely series of adventures in the rare event that she quizzed him afterwards. People liked it when you listened to them too-

"Pssst." Amy's voice whispered by his ear.

"Huh?" He turned to find himself pressed nose to nose with the pink hedgehog. "Ah!"

Amy smirked at him smugly as he tumbled back, heart pounding.

"I _said_ dinner." She winked. "You too, Cream."

"Yes, Miss Amy!" Cream nodded dutifully as she tapped a button on the remote.

Miles slipped off the chair, slipping his half-eaten cookie into hammerspace before extending a hand towards the rabbit as she scooched towards the edge of the giant cushion, feet dangling over the edge.

"Thanks, Mister Tails!" Cream smiled at him as she slipped down.

Miles nodded. Thankfully the chairs were a more sensible size. He settled into the one furthest from the couch as Amy returned with a large tray meant for bigger hands.

"Alright…" Amy slid the tray onto the middle of the table. "If your mom asks, Cream, this was a _vegetable_ pizza, got it? Broccoli, carrots, the works."

"Yes, Miss Amy!" Cream helped herself to a slice without hesitation.

Miles peered at the greasy pizza that could charitably have been said to have been vegetable adjacent at some point, then followed suit. He was rarely fussy about what he ate either way, when he remembered to eat at all - fussy eaters didn't last long on deserted islands.

Heck, now he thought back, his first _real_ encounter with civilised food had been military rations. The mint gum had been the tastiest part, and probably caused the least damage when he swallowed it.

"So, Tails." Amy spoke around a mouthful of cheese. "What have you been working on in your lab lately?"

Uh oh, landmine topic. Cream didn't like violence, right? Miles froze, chewing as he thought.

"Uh… Engine. Engine upgrades for the Tornado." He grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "You know me."

"Tails is always working on that cutting edge science stuff." Amy nodded to Cream. "Very cool."

Miles narrowed his eyes slightly. Did girls have secret codewords together? He already knew she thought he was lame, last time he'd started to explain one of his inventions to her she'd thrown a soda can at his head.

It was full.

Cream smiled brightly. "Yes, Mister Tails is _very_ smart. He built G-Merl, after all."

"Well, I just repaired him, really." Miles rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't be so modest, Tails!" Amy shook her pizza in lieu of a finger. "Not many people could even have done that; G-merl's ancient technology after all."

"If you say so." Miles busied himself with his own pizza. Considering the robot had been a nigh unstoppable doomsday weapon before he reprogrammed it, it was probably a good thing nobody else knew how to build one. Probably not even Eggman, considering how his villainous counterpart felt about backups. Or blueprints.

Now if only _he_ didn't know how to build one the world would be doing pretty well.

Fending off a few more questions along a similar vein through the meal, Miles, after helping clear away the plates, found himself facing a new dilemma.

Entering a girl's room.

"Okay, come on in. Sorry about the mess." Amy pushed the door open with a slightly sheepish expression, revealing a surprisingly non-pink bedroom, that was unsurprisingly filled with a great deal of official paraphernalia of her hero. "So bad news is, there's only one bed."

Miles froze halfway through the doorway. Amy smirked at his expression as he looked about the room as though it might bite him.

"Oh ha ha." Miles relaxed. "Very funny."

"She makes that joke every time." Cream sighed, slipping past Miles into the room.

"It came with the apartment! Isn't it great?" Amy grinned as she hoiked herself up onto a bed that dominated much of the room, big enough to easily accommodate twice their number without restriction, and in fact already containing two extra guests - the plush doppelgangers of Sonic and himself.

"Seriously?" Miles cringed in embarrassment. Bad enough she'd even _kept_ it, but this?

"What? They're comfy." Amy leaned against the larger than life duo with a grin. "And this one's _super_ cute, right Cream?"

"You are unreasonably adorable, Mister Tails." Cream nodded gravely at him.

"I'm just stepping out to get some fresh air for a bit." Miles spun on his heel, walking straight towards the snow encrusted window.

"Don't you dare!" Amy's pout lasted only a moment before breaking into a mischievous grin. "Fine, we'll stop teasing you. Now what do you two want to do first? We could tell spooky stories, I could read your fortunes, or I could go grab the Fuzzy Puppies board?"

"Fuzzy puppies! Fuzzy puppies!" Cream cried out excitedly, almost tumbling from the bed she'd worked so hard to get up onto in the first place.

Miles raised an eyebrow as he slunk back towards the bed, watching as a hexagonal board and various obnoxiously cute Terran dog pieces were recovered from the other room and settled upon the sheets.

"Say, how about we make this interesting?" Amy glanced at Miles with a gaze that suggested that her previous agreement to stop messing with him had already long expired. "How about the loser of each round has to do a truth or dare?"

"Okay." Cream, ever the unwitting accomplice, smiled brightly. "That sounds fun!"

"Uh-" Miles raised a finger.

"Great! Two's a majority, come on up, Tails."

Miles nodded, clambering up onto the mattress and staring down at the cutesy playing pieces with a sigh. Now he had no other choice.

"Alright." He lifted up a golden retriever, putting on an innocent smile as he glanced at the two girls sat across from him. "How do you play this game then?"


	12. Chapter 12

There was a certain strategy to truth or dare. An optimal way to reach a close and comfortable atmosphere and get to know everyone that much better, breaking down barriers without any ruffled feelings or things "going too far" and everyone being better friends at the end of it.

Amy, who had uprooted her social life five years ago when she left Little Planet, and spent a decent chunk of that time just struggling to establish herself on a world where her only social connection was her penniless hero and his antisocial sidekick, did not have any idea what that strategy was. She had no idea what she was doing. And while she had managed to make some female friends lately, and Rouge, she had little to no experience in what to do in this situation, especially with a boy around. Even if it _was_ just Tails.

But she had a plan, a glorious, beautiful plan, to help her friends find love with one another, and a little nudge in the right direction would be exactly what this passive pair needed if they were ever going to get anywhere.

A plan that would go much more easily if the fox she was helping would _cooperate_. His first victory against Cream hadn't even been _interesting_. He'd asked her what her _favourite hobby_ was. _She_ could have told him that, clearly she was going to have to take the lead and start making things more fun.

If he'd just _lose_.

"And I move my Bulldog… here?"

"Ughhh." Amy slumped against her palm, laying on her front to stare down at the board. "How are you so good at this? You win again. Are you sure you haven't played before?"

Tails shook his head, his usual smile in place. "It's a little like chess, except for the randomness."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Shoulda known you'd be good at this. I pick… truth, I guess."

"Alright…" Tails tapped his lips, blue eyes unreadable as he stared into her own. "What is one thing about you that you don't want Sonic to know?"

What happened to boring?!

"That's not very nice, Mister Tails!"

"Just getting some insurance." Tails grinned.

Oh that sneaky little-

"It's fine, Cream." Amy waved quickly. "Just… promise not to tell?"

"What happens in truth or dare _stays_ in truth or dare, right?" Tails' smile didn't waver.

"I think so?" Cream looked to Amy, eyes wide.

"Uh, yes! Those. They are the rules." Amy nodded. "Well, okay. I guess it's probably quicker to show you."

She pushed herself up and off the bed, taking a deep breath before sliding open a drawer and grabbing a case from within. She closed her eyes as she put them on, turning with a smile she _hoped_ looked cute and confident.

"Oh! Glasses!" Cream covered her mouth, long ears standing on end with surprise.

"That's right." Amy rubbed her shoulders, glancing up at Tails, whose smile had vanished. "I have bad eyes."

Tails didn't even reply, just stared. Amy looked down, frowning in growing embarrassment.

"Yeah… So that's it. It's not even that bad, but things get pretty fuzzy when they're far away."

It didn't _need_ to be that bad. She ran fast enough that something she could barely see was moments from being something she ran into. Especially hedgehogs. Any moment Tails was going to crack a joke about all the times she'd grabbed the wrong guy and-

"Wow, those look _really_ good on you."

"Wh-what?" Amy blinked, train of thought both derailed and detonated.

"Yeah! They look really pretty, Miss Amy!"

"Ah, well." Amy rubbed the back of her head. "Thanks."

"Why don't you wear them more often?" Cream tilted her head in childlike curiosity. She'd apparently forgotten the question.

"Because..."

Because she wasn't good enough for Sonic even when she was perfect.

"Because they'd keep falling off, right?" Tails spoke up, raising a finger.

"Yes! That's right." Amy nodded.

Mobians had big eyes and ears on the tops of their head. Even contacts had a habit of flying out when their wearer stopped suddenly, to say nothing of the _pince-nez_ style glasses currently in fashion. A sudden stop at three hundred miles an hour and she'd probably put a dent in the nearest wall.

"So do we need to dare you to keep them on while we play, or is that a freebie?" Tails' smile broadened to a grin.

"Shaddap!" Her face was probably bright red now, they were merciless. This wasn't fair, their cheeks were _furry,_ nobody could see them blush.

"Oh… is that a no? That's a shame. They're so cute though." Cream pouted, batting her eyelashes.

"No more! I'm not kidding!" Amy raised her hammer, face on fire.

"Eeep!" Cream hunkered down on the bed, holding the Sonic plush over her head. Tails glanced at the plush of himself before just wrapping his tails over his own head with a resigned expression.

"That's better!" Jerks. Amy huffed, arms folded a moment before she climbed onto the bed once more, heart still pounding. "Alright, Cream. You and me, you're going _down_."

And down she went. _This_ was more like it. Usually she went easier on Cream, but even if she was embarrassed she was _still_ a top notch FP player. Tails just got in her head, that was all. Well she was going to get her own back, she was just a little off balance was all. Two could play at that game.

"That's it, your dalmatian is mine, and that's game. Truth or dare?"

"Umm…" Cream peered up at her, ears tilting as she thought it through. "Dare, I guess?"

"I hereby dare you to sit next to Tails and…" She pushed up her glasses, a wicked grin spreading across her face. "Blow in his ear for the next round."

"Miss Amy!" Cream gasped in horror.

"That's the dare! No backing out!" Amy turned her grin on Tails, who stiffened as the distraught rabbit settled alongside him. "Now I do believe next round was between you and me, Tails?"

Perfect. Put the two of them close together, get some hearts racing _and_ give her strongest rival a handicap for the next round. She clasped her hands together as light reflected across the lenses of her glasses. Just as planned.

Tails narrowed his eyes at her as she set up the board, keeping a solemn silence until she nodded.

"Uagh!" His tails lashed out, fur standing on end as his expression collapsed and he coiled in on himself as the delicate fur in his ears was subjected to a stream of warm air.

"Sorry, Mister Tails!" Cream clenched her hands together beside him, where she knelt to reach up to his ear.

"It's… fine. Going to… get you for this, Amy." Tails gritted his teeth as he reached for the die, shivering down his spine.

It was still an annoyingly close match, but Amy eventually laid her last piece with a triumphant "Ha!". Cream sighed in relief as she sat back, panting softly.

"That. Was. _Awful_." He squirmed, rubbing his ear with a shudder.

"That's what you get for teasing me!" Amy smirked, mentally noting the new weapon in her arsenal against the fox. "Now... truth or dare?"

"Truth." Tails was back, immutable smile in place as he glared at her.

Ooo, a truth. Now what could she do with that? Tails didn't exactly get up to much outside of hanging out in his lab or following Sonic around… Ask how he felt about Cream?

No, too direct. Miles was the type that would give evasive answers that could shoot down any chance of a relationship early on. Better to feel things out first, maybe start with Cream. Oh, Cream was still next to him though, that was progress. Hm… Amy tapped her lips. Curiosity came first then. There was plenty she didn't know about his past, after all.

"You always say you've had _worse_ when you get hurt. So… What was the worst?"

The smile vanished, and Tails stopped looking at her, staring at something past her. It was as if he was a robotic double after all and his AI just rebooted.

Oh Penders she'd just made this awkward. Abort, abort.

"You remember when Sonic and I were on the Lost Hex?" Tails looked back "at" her suddenly, his expression haunted.

"Of course." Amy nodded. She'd almost died. _Everyone_ almost died that time, before Tails reversed Eggman's extraction machine.

"When the Zeti hooked me up to the roboticiser." He nodded thoughtfully. "I think that was the worst. Especially when it stuck the needle into my optical nerve." He nodded again.

"Ugh, someone stabbed you in the eye and you _think_ that was the worst?" Amy shuddered.

"Well, there's a lot of competition." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle. "I'm not Sonic, after all. I'm always struggling along."

Totally insensitive question, this was dumb. Now she felt terrible and-

"Oh, Mister Tails!" Cream scooched closer to him, eyes glittering with wet. "That sounds awful! You must have been so scared!"

Oh, wait. Everything worked out better than expected.

"It wasn't all bad. I looked _super_ tough!" Tails grinned, flexing his slender mobian arms. "Very macho. Sonic was scared of _me_."

"He was _not_." Amy narrowed her eyes.

Cream giggled.

"I'm sure you were very… intimidating, Mister Tails."

"Why does nobody ever believe me?" Tails slumped. "Okay, you ready for the next game, Cream?"

Danger of drama now gone like it never even happened, Amy recognised the next danger coming from a mile away as Tails handily beat Cream.

"You two aren't playing very nice." Cream pouted. "I choose dare. It's only fair." She glanced at Amy meaningfully.

"I dare you…" Tails grinned. "To do your best Knuckles impression."

"Huh?" Amy perked up. She'd been expecting brutal truth and dare proxy wars, not- "Wow, that's actually a _really_ good impression."

"It's like he's here right now." Tails nodded in wonder. "How do you even bend your ears like that?"

Cream nodded in Knucklesesque smug satisfaction, relaxing the boxing pose of their crimson friend with a final "oh no!" before curtseying and taking her seat once more to astonished applause.

"You and me, next, Miss Amy!" She smiled. "That was fun!"

This time it was close, a lucky Retriever combo on Cream's part left her on the ropes, but Amy pulled through thanks to a few lucky rolls.

"Good game, Cream! You almost had me there. Truth or dare?"

"Mmm… Truth?" Cream's expression fell as Amy's brightened.

"Do you... have a crush on anyone?"

"Miss Amyyyy!" Cream clutched her ears in horror.

"Yes or no is fine." Amy winked. That was a good sign.

"Um..." Cream prodded her fingertips together, the inside of her ears reddening. "...Yes."

"Ooo, _juicy_." Amy grinned. That was _another_ good sign. "Is it someone I knooww?"

"W-w-w-well-"

"One question per win, Amy."

"Oh foo." Amy stuck her tongue out at Tails. Didn't he know she was doing this for _him_? "Fine, let's go, party pooper."

Well that was fine too, let him rescue her from a little teasing. This was all going _great_ so far. Why couldn't things go this well with Sonic and her?

Oh right, because he couldn't stand to be around her for this long.

She was even winning. More from a few good rolls than any real difference in strategy at this point. She'd already accounted for his quirky, if effective, tactics by now, but nothing she did seemed to catch him off guard either. Annoying. And now he was on this defensive stall that made her sacrifice puppies one after the other…

"Whew. You got me." Tails rubbed the back of his head with a grin. "Good game, Amy."

Her annoyance evaporated. Right, this was a game. Just because he'd got good at it quickly that didn't stop it being fun, if anything it made beating him more enjoyable. Especially when he was so calm about losing.

"I pick… Truth."

"Ooo, _very_ brave after what you just pulled." Amy tapped her lips with her glasses. "You afraid of what dare you're going to get?"

"Absolutely." Tails nodded without hesitation.

"Ugh, coward." Should she ask him the same question? Or _maybe_ … no, not after last time. She almost wanted to ask why he'd stopped fighting with Sonic, but that was probably another landmine. "What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?"

"Hmm… Definitely bee."

"What?!" Cream looked aghast.

"No, Cream, just regular bees!" Tails raised his hands. "I've never eaten mobians! Honest!"

"Wait, bees _plural_?" Amy grimaced. "What the heck, Tails?"

"Well, there was nothing else to eat." Tails shrugged. "I needed the protein. Got the honey too, but that wasn't weird so much as-."

"Where the heck were you living that you had to eat _bugs_?"

"One question per win, right?" He smiled, wagging a finger.

"Oh no, you're banned from choosing truth for the rest of the evening. Everything I learn about you just makes me want to cry."

"Oh come on! I didn't even think that one was that bad!"

"You are a surprisingly tragic figure, Mister Tails." Cream nodded gravely.

"You too, Cream?" Tails flopped onto his plush copy with a groan.

It really was pretty funny how much bigger it was than him.

"Sorry, Mister Tails."

"Oh, no." Tails glared from atop his namesake. "It's fine. You want to play truth or dare with only dares?"

His dark smile was a grim echo of the stitched happiness of the plush toy upon which he lay as he placed pieces out on the board once more.

"Then let's get _daregerous."_


	13. Chapter 13

Well that had got more than a little out of hand.

Miles sighed, breath misting into the crisp morning air as he surveyed the cold white landscape outside, brain cataloguing and compartmentalising the experience of the last twelve hours like a military debriefing.

"Oh my goodness! It snowed so much!" Cream rocked on her heels beside him, one of Amy's borrowed jackets draped over her shoulders.

"Yeah, looks to be a good two foot deep. Hope I can figure out where I parked."

Miles raised his hand, palm held upwards as he prodded at the controls for a moment. A small explosion erupted in snow and ice at the other end of the street, eliciting a surprised yelp from Cream. Black smoke sizzled up into the pale blue winter sky.

"Ah yep. There we are."

"Mister Tails what did you do?"

"I'm... _pretty_ sure that was just a streetlight."

"Mister Tails!"

"I'm sure they'll just bill me again!" Miles rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "They like it, I swear! I'm helping promote job security!"

Technically the Broken Window fallacy applied here, but since he was fairly sure that the economic damage was to himself, that was a net positive for the rest of the world and a non-existent opportunity cost for him, given his usual spending habits.

"Mister Tails, that is terrible. No more breaking things!" Cream huffed, hands on her hips. "You could hurt someone!"

"Alright, Cream, I'm sorry." He tapped a finger to his lips. "It's a bit far for me to fly. You?"

"I'm sorry, I can't fly very far without Cheese helping me, Mister Tails." Cream shook her head.

"It's fine." Miles shrugged. "Well, hop on."

"What?" Cream's fluffy tail twitched as she looked up at him.

"Snow's way too deep for you, right? Come on, I'll give you a piggy back."

"Oh, um, okay." Cream slipped her leg carefully over his tails.

Miles straightened, dropping his hands under her legs to shift her into position before letting her weight settle down onto the base of his tails.

"Alright, you holding tight?"

"Are you sure I'm not too heavy for you?" Cream's voice came between his ears as her hands locked around his chest.

"Cream, I can lift a _plane_."

"Well, yes, Mister Tails, but all my weight is on your… butt."

Miles let out a laugh. "It's fine. Really. But if you're worried I'll pull _your_ tail later."

"Mister Tails!"

"What? Everyone messes with _my_ tails." Miles stepped out onto the snow, dense frame sinking immediately up to his neck.

"Well, yes. But that doesn't count."

"What."

"They're so _long_ after all."

"They're still _me_!"

Cream suddenly giggled.

"I suppose that's true. It's still funny what happened though."

" _Nothing_ happened." Miles' ears lay flat as he trudged out to the sidewalk, carving a furrow in the snow with his chest.

"When Miss Amy was-"

"Didn't. Happen."

That humiliating case of mistaken identity was probably why Amy hadn't come out to see them off. Her own fault for using a giant plush version of him as a pillow in the first place. He pressed his ears flatter against the memory.

Cream giggled again, gripping tighter as he crunched through a snow drift.

"Whatever you say, Mister Tails. What happens in truth or dare..."

She'd probably have noticed if it was _Sonic_. He had spines after all, much less cuddly than he was.

Though… She probably wouldn't have wanted to let go if it had been Sonic.

"I wanted to thank you, Mister Tails." Cream spoke softly into his ear, despite the deserted early morning streets.

"Huh? For what?"

"Miss Amy seemed to be in a good mood lately. And I think you've had a lot to do with it."

"Me?" Miles shrugged, a sigh misting out before him. "I don't think I've done anything special. Not that she _deserves_ it after last night, but..."

"I think the things you do are _very_ special, Mister Tails." Cream nodded, her chin rubbing the back of his head. "And you're nicer than you think too."

"I'm _very_ nice." Miles lied. "Carrying _you_ , aren't I? And I haven't even tweaked your tail despite _perfect_ opportunity."

"Well, you are a _little_ on the timid side, yes." Cream nodded again.

"Hey!"

"But I'm happy."

"You're happy I'm timid?" Miles tilted an ear, brushing past a nose in the process.

"Not that. I thought that you didn't like me very much, Mister Tails."

"Huh? No I-"

"It was fine if you didn't. You've always been nice to me and mama after all. But you always seemed to avoid talking to me."

Miles walked on, biting his lip.

"But after last night I can see you're just shy. It makes me happy."

"Wait, so you _are_ happy I'm timid."

Cream giggled again. "You're a little intimidating, Mister Tails. Seeing that you have things you _aren't_ good at makes you seem a little more _real_ somehow."

"I'm not _that_ shy." Miles pouted.

"You still haven't touched my tail."

"Well that's- I- It's- You- We're here." Miles pointed at the smoking crater, devoid of snow where the incendiary had kicked in.

"Huh? Where's your plane?"

"I… _think_ it's under that snow drift, let's pop you down here…" Miles crouched down, slipping his tails from between her legs and stepping clear. "I'll see if I can fire up the bubble field and get her out."

"Alright."

Miles stared at the palm of his glove. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but in hindsight… Probably should have included labels.

… This one?

The telltale hum of a wave motion beam charging sang out from the snow. He hurriedly pressed it a second time to cancel. Cream smiled up at him with polite interest.

"Just, uh, just warming her up." He rubbed the back of his head.

Alright, so if the death ray was there, then… He pressed the button.

Bingo!

Wait-

"That was very impressive, Mister Tails." Cream's gentle voice came from behind him.

"Tnkth." Miles replied.

"Especially the way the snow flew so far."

"Mhm."

"It was very nice for you to jump out in front of me."

"Yr wlcm."

"Do you need me to help get the snow off?"

"Plth."

A few whacks and tugs later, and Miles tottered backwards, world filled with light once more, and Cream's smiling face peering up at him.

"Thanks." He rubbed the back of his head, dislodging more snow. "I… guess I feel pretty real right now, huh?"

"Don't worry, Mister Tails." Cream reached up on tip toe to pat his head. "I think the real you is a very interesting person to be friends with."

"We're friends now?" Miles blinked in surprise. Wait, was that insulting? Dealing with people was hard. Damage control-

Cream laughed.

"Well, sure, Mister Tails. We already were!"

"That… that's good to know, Cream. Thanks." He gestured a thumb towards the _Vortex_ , now settled in its own area devoid of the snow that lay even more thickly in a blast wave around it. "Shall we?"

He grabbed her outstretched hand and took off, traversing the distance in moments. There was a slight pressure as they slipped through the bubble field into the cold, arid air within.

"Oh! I like the colour, very nice."

"Thanks! Green is the best colour for cars." He opened the door for her before zipping around to the other side.

"Ooo, the seats are heated and everything?"

"Well that's probably from the wave-" Miles caught himself. "Uh, yeah, cool feature, huh? So do you want to drive or fly back?"

"Mm." Cream twitched her nose thoughtfully. "Fly please. It's going to be hard to drive in all this snow, right?"

Not really. Miles nodded. A bubble shield functioned by removing water from the surroundings - a feature that had taken a good deal of fine tuning to stop it from being an all purpose biocide. The function would effectively double as a snow plough, but… probably worth testing it a bit more on things other than mobian biology first.

"Alright, shouldn't take long."

The seats swayed beneath them as the Vortex transformed, rotors sending wisps of snow drifting across the street. It lifted from the ground in near silence, leaving them sat in the same as Cream peered out the window at the world accelerating beneath them.

...Wait. Was she giggling again?

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, I was just thinking about last night."

"Cream, if I or anyone see those photos then I am going to delete the internet."

"I promise to keep them very safe, Mister Tails. But I was actually thinking about Miss Amy."

"Well she started it!"

"I haven't seen her that calm in a long time, and she _certainly_ had lots of nice things to say about you, Mister Tails."

"Hah. I guess I like her teasing me more than hammering me at least." Miles rubbed the back of his head with a grin. The evening _had_ helped him understand how _Cream_ thought a little better if nothing else.

The dashboard pinged. Miles tapped the autopilot as he reached over to open the screen. A blue whirl icon indicated the incoming message.

:: tails u there?

"Oh, is that Mister Sonic!" Cream pushed forward. "Tell him I said hi!"

:: I'm here, Sonic, what's up?

:: Cream says hi, by the way, just running her home after the snowstorm.

:: hi cream!

"He can't actually hear you, Cream." Miles rubbed his ear.

:: so ol buddy ol pal... u know anything about this?

Miles barely had time to steel himself before the video file popped up. Amy, clad in the bright coloured outfit of Rainbow the pony and her cheeks almost the same colour as her fur from embarrassment, used a hairbrush as a makeshift microphone as she belted out an enthusiastic rendition of the Rainbow theme song with a pair of press-ganged backup singers dancing behind her.

"The choreography really came out well, didn't it, Mister Tails?"

She didn't even have the decency to be apologetic. That was _her_ dare. At least he'd remembered to take off Amy's glasses before they recorded.

:: She's a surprisingly good singer, isn't she?"

:: she's not the only one!

At least they let him dress as the boy character. For the video. Miles put his hands over his face, taking a deep breath.

:: so anyway u know how this comms channel is only for emergencies and mission critical info?

:: You're right, sorry Sonic.

:: u think u can set up a new one?

:: cos this is the funniest thing i ever saw

:: even funnier than that pickle thing

:: i already shared it with knux & rouge

:: she sez even shadow liked it!

"Are you alright, Mister Tails?"

"Just stress testing the dashboard, Cream." Miles rubbed his forehead with a sigh.

:: I'll see what I can set up when I get back, Sonic.

He shut the screen off and resumed clutching his hands over his face, trying to spontaneously develop enough Chaos affinity to will himself off the face of the planet until an alert beeped on his dashboard again.

"Oh, there's Water Palace, Cream. We'll be there in a minute."

"Thank you very much for the ride. It would have been hard with all this snow."

"No problem. And, uh…" Miles rubbed the back of his head. "If you want to swing by the lab any time I'm in the area… you're… um... always welcome."

"I think I'd like that." Cream winked a brown eye at him. "I'm sure we could find something fun to do. Maybe I'll make you something that isn't bees?"

"Mhm." Miles stared at her half-lidded. "Maybe I'll make _you_ something that _is_ bees?"

"Ew! No!"

"I could check through the old cookbooks, maybe you'll decide you like it?"

"Mister Tails!" Cream flailed both hands at him as though to swat the insectoid threat there and then.

Miles just grinned, taking control to descend upon a little cottage of more sensible proportions below. A cheery light of early decorations twinkled from the window.

"There we go. Want me to carry you to the door?"

"That's alright." Cream smiled brightly. "I can fly this far."

Miles nodded, tapping a control to open the door for her.

"Oh, Mister Tails?"

"Yeah?" Miles looked back to the rabbit sitting with her feet hanging out of the _Vortex_.

"I like you, Mister Tails. You're a very interesting person. And I think Miss Amy likes you too." She smiled, twitching the fluffy cream tail from the bottom of her oversized coat. "But you should probably try to be a little less timid."

Miles met her unblinking gaze with his own, raising a hand…

"Bye, Cream." He waved with a smile.

Cream giggled, twitching her tail once more. "Goodbye, Mister Tails. And good luck!"

And she was gone, swooping through the air with physics defying grace to her door, disappearing inside with one final wave.

Miles took a deep breath, pressing the button to seal the door before once again stress testing his dashboard.

Amy, Rouge, and now Cream. Was there ever going to be a girl in his life who _didn't_ delight in messing with his carefully structured head? Hopefully he could burrow deep in his lab for the next month or two until something less complicated came along. Like brain mechanics. Or rocket surgery.

The screen pinged under his face. He pulled back with a sigh to see Amy's icon flashing. He tapped it after a moment's hesitation to see the same video Sonic had posted.

Except it wasn't.

It was a link.

To Scrambler.

Where it had forty-six million views.

"Oh _Penders_." Miles wrapped his arms around his tails in horror.

:: soleanna festival of lights

:: next week

:: you bring Sonic

:: I bring Cream

:: you will make it a magical evening for everyone

:: and I won't beat you both to death with a hammer.

:: deal?

Miles burrowed his face into his tails, screaming into their thick fur as he typed his response.


	14. Chapter 14

"What's with the VIP treatment, Tails?"

Sonic grinned down at him, scratching a fingertip across his furless cheek.

Miles stared up at him numbly, his hand locked around the larger hedgehog's arm.

Life and death.

"Not much. Just making sure we don't get separated."

At least everybody was giving them plenty of room. Humans either respected the personal space of a mobian hedgehog or swiftly learned to after bumping into them the first time, and Sonic was a regular enough feature in Soleanna that only a few revellers spared them a second glance.

"Hah, worried I'll disappear on you, bud?"

Yes. Miles shook his head with a smile. A series of fireworks exploded overhead, sending a shiver of barely repressed reflex rippling down his spine.

Sonic looked at him with a knowing smile.

"I see. No worries, Tails, you hang on as long as you want."

He wasn't afraid.

Miles pouted, looking into the crowd of giants walking around them, sparklers crackling in the hands of enormous children, a fire eater spitting flames across the dark sky above. Even jugglers hurled fiery batons through the air, reflecting off the water of the canals for which Soleanna was famed.

He _wasn't_ afraid.

But he didn't like it.

It would be better if this _was_ a warzone. Things made _sense_ in warzones. What people wanted, how to react to things. Things exploding left and right, robots tearing apart with metallic shrieks, people yelling and shooting, pain and fear and crawling in the dirt as bombs and napalm made the jungle shimmer with heat and screams-

"Candy apple?"

"Please." He smiled.

Here was _safe_. _He_ was safe. Even though his instincts screamed otherwise. Even though every unexpected blast made him want to dive for cover, drag Sonic out of harms way, stop being safe and become dangerous and to fight and burn and kill and-

"Here ya go!"

"Thanks!" Miles smiled again, forcing his breathing calm, his pounding heart still as he clamped his teeth into the crisp flesh of the fruit and its sticky exterior, not tasting either. "T'th g'd!"

"Right?" Sonic grinned, chomping into his own sugary fruit. "This place has the best apples."

How was he fine? He'd been fighting for almost as long as Miles had, maybe even longer. He'd been burned and shot at, he'd fought through explosions and fire and the deafening noise… But he loved things like this, the excitement, the thrill. Sonic roamed the world wisecracking and laughing and never minding the details even though everything was fire and people were staring and he didn't like it and he was tired and his chest hurt and _he didn't like it._

"You, uh... Little buddy?"

"Huh?" Miles blinked. Splinters jutted from his palm, the apple nowhere to be seen. "Hah! Whoops. Guess that last one did make me jump a little."

At least he hadn't clenched the other hand.

"Last… what, Tails? Hasn't been any fireworks for a few minutes."

"Oh, you didn't see the thing?"

"The… thing." Green eyes bore down on him.

"Yeah, the thing. It went whoosh! And big flash. Wasn't expecting that!"

"...Ah huh." Sonic nodded. "You want to go sit down somewhere quiet? Maybe get that checked out?"

"It's fine, just stuck in the fabric of my glove." Miles lied with a calm smile. "Let's just find the girls. I'll be able to pull them out once we get there."

"You could let go of my arm."

"And have you disappear to Narnia this time?" Miles smirked. "Oh no, you're not getting away from meeting everybody that easy."

Even getting everyone to the right continent had been a logistical nightmare, after all.

"It's not _everybody_ I'm worried about."

"Oh come on, I'm sure Amy barely even remembers that you sent out that video that got three hundred and ninety seven million four hundred and fifteen thousand seven hundred and twelve views as of this morning." Miles smiled brightly, hand hidden behind his back.

"Well when you put it that way-"

"Sonic so help me we are meeting our friends and you will show your face or I will tell Amy that you wax your arms right before she hammers me to death." Miles smiled his sweetest smile.

"Alright, fine, sheesh." Sonic rolled his eyes before getting distracted by a passing float of golden-robed dancing girls.

Miles breathed out softly.

All within tolerances. His included.

"Hey, is that them over there?" Sonic waved through the momentary gap in the sea of legs at a pair of mobians clad in the same golden yellow as the human festival goers.

"Hi, Mister Soniiiic!" Cream was first to leap up, the tiny blue form of Cheese the chao dancing in the air above her head. The gondola beneath her tilted dangerously.

"Cream! Long time no see!" Sonic grinned, hand held wide in greeting. "Uh… hey, Amy." He grinned her way too, perhaps a little less brightly. "So how are my Rainbow warriors doin'?"

Don't hammer him. Don't hammer him. Don't hammer him.

Amy smiled.

Thank Yamaguchi.

"Not too bad, we grabbed some snacks while we were waiting." She brushed a hand over her spines, looking out over the black water. "Was starting to worry that you wouldn't make it."

Cream lunged forward, her chao fluttering behind her on tiny wings as she held aloft two strips of yellow fabric. Apparently those snacks had contained more than their fair share of sugar.

"I got you ribbons!" She beamed up at them. "For the festival!"

"Why thank you, Cream." Sonic smirked, bowing his head low to allow her to loop the cloth around his head.

Not a great fit, given the spikes, but they both seemed happy enough as he stood, a streak of yellow against blue. "You looking forward to the lanterns?"

"Yes! I saw them setting everything up. They're so pretty!" Cream turned her attention to Miles, batting her lashes at him as she laid a finger against her lips. "I… guess I should have picked you out a different colour, huh Mister Tails?"

"I guess I do already match pretty well." Miles grinned, rubbing the back of his head and regretting it as wood stabbed deeper into his hand.  
"Well..." Cream frowned, then looped the ribbon over his neck, pressing her hands against the white fur of his chest as she looped the fabric around on itself. Explosions flashed overhead in spectacular patterns once more.

Did she feel his heart hammering against her fingers?

"There we go, nice and smart! Just like Cheese!"

"Chao!" The spritelike creature beamed happily as it flitted up to his face. The tiny red bow tie on its neck did indeed resemble his own.

"Thanks, Cream." Miles grinned, resisting the urge to run his finger under the fabric now binding his neck. "Should we get on board? It's going to start soon."

Sonic's arm tensed under his hand. This was the most dangerous part. Sonic didn't hate boats, per se, and he certainly didn't hate Amy, but being stuck on a boat with Amy was dangerously close to a deal breaker.

"Good idea, Tails, why don't you come sit up front with me?" Amy patted the seat. "Cream can keep Sonic company while he handles the pole thing?"

Amy wasn't acting lovey dovey, seemed to be in a good mood, and he got to be the one doing the steering? Plus Cream and Tails were there, so it was a safe friends thing, not a "date", and since he was in control of the boat he could always stay close to the edge of the canal, a safe jumping distance from freedom in case he saw any hammers.

Boom, the tension faded. The trap was set.

Miles let go of Sonic's arm to clamber onto the lopsided boat, sharing a small smile with the hedgehog who was his partner in crime on this dastardly venture.

Because, naturally, the plan _was_ to get the two of them alone on the boat with as much of a romantic atmosphere as possible, and a slim possibility of Sonic getting whacked on the head with a hammer, depending how sore Amy was about the whole video thing. This was why Cheese was scheduled to race off "unexpectedly" once they got away from the shore. Miles would then fly off with Cream to help find it, a plan Amy had been delighted with when he'd explained it to her, and she and her hero would be left alone together at approximately the moment that paper lanterns were to be released into the night sky in an atmosphere so romantic that they'd made movies out of it.

Sonic might be a tiny bit on the inconsiderate side at times, but abandoning Amy in a boat on the middle of a canal all by herself was probably beyond even him, ensuring a perfect opportunity for Amy to get her romance on. Cream could go play in the festival to her heart's content, and he could find the darkest, quietest corner in town, curl up in his tails and cry until the sky stopped being on fire. Truly a magical evening for all.

And some friendly comeuppance for his friend, since Miles had been in that video too.

It all seemed to be going perfectly until Sonic kicked the oar as he was stepping into the boat, spooking their star performer as the wooden implement was knocked over onto its head.

"Chao!" Cheese soared out of the gondola, clutching its oversized cranium in a stream of incoherent, but probably obscene, chao noises.

"Cheese! No! You're not supposed to go anywhere yet!" Cream launched out of the gondola, hands outstretched as she slipped through the crowd and out of sight.

"Cream!" Sonic spun on his heel, kicking off the stern to leap from the rocking vessel back to dry land. He disappeared into the crowd after the rabbit with a yell of "Hold on!".

And finally, as Miles watched in aching slow motion, the oar, sent flying by the commotion, dropped into the dark water with a plop.

The partners in crime sat in stunned silence as the gondola coasted out into the middle of the waterway, fireworks above them bursting in cackling rhythm.

And, with a precision borne of long years of friendship and collaboration, both opened their mouths and spoke as one.

"Penders."


	15. Chapter 15

"Well, they say never to work with small children and animals." Tails slumped down beside Amy with an exasperated huff.

"Cream's almost seven, and I don't even know what chao are." Amy snapped.

"Well... they're both still pretty small though." The fox shrugged.

Amy sighed, dropping her head to her knees.

"Guess the joke's on us either way."

He was right. She was a joke. He was a joke. Sonic _definitely_ thought she was a joke. She'd been avoiding Rouge's calls all week, and her workmates had the video on loop for the last two days. There were probably alien civilisations out there that saw her dancing around and singing like an idiot.

And all she'd wanted was to sit in a boat with Sonic.

And she was a joke there too.

She'd tried being nice, and sweet, and mature, and _apparently_ she'd tried being an immature goofball and she'd tried being direct and she'd tried getting the smartest guy in the world to try and help her and she'd _still_ managed to crash and burn.

She should just throw herself in the canal.

No, wait. Tails could swim. He'd probably just save her.

Jerk.

"I'm sorry," she told her shoes. They were nice shoes. She'd thought long and hard what to wear. She'd travelled half a continent away and-

"For what?" Tails interrupted.

Amy sighed.

"You should go help Cream find Cheese."

"And leave you here alone?" Tails snorted. "I don't think so."

Why did he think he was even here? Maybe she should just throw him to shore? That would get him moving.

"Besides, I think Sonic's got it covered. He's probably raced halfway through town by now."

Of course. Amy glanced up at the fox hunched over on the seat next to her. She hadn't just failed, she'd dragged him down with her. Some matchmaker she'd turned out to be.

"Well I guess I'd better go grab that oar."

"Why bother? Getting him on this boat was a miracle in the first place, we'll never get him back."

"Well… I guess I could just carry you?"

Fireworks exploded overhead. Amy felt the fox's fur bristle against her.

"Maybe if I stay low?" He grinned weakly, rubbing the back of his head before wincing.

"What's the-" Amy snapped her hand around Tails' wrist. "Are you okay? There's blood everywhere!"

"Oh, uh, sort of broke a stick." Tails shrugged with a smile. "I've had worse."

"I _know_ you've had worse, dummy." Amy yanked him closer to her with a scowl, locking his arm against her chest as she inspected his hand in the flickering lights bursting above. "But that's not what I asked. Does it hurt?"

Tails shook his head.

"It hurts a lot."

"Thought so. Why didn't you tell Sonic?" Amy tutted, tugging a few shards of wood from his glove before pulling the loose material away from his hand and sliding it free. Dark patches of blood welled from the short fur of his palm.

"I didn't want to mess up the plan." Tails' ears flattened against his head.

"Well _that_ sure worked out." Amy snapped, hating herself for it even as she said it.

"Sorry." He slumped lower, making her feel worse.

"Why didn't you have rings?"

"No time. Busy with… everything."

"Dummy." Amy shook her head with a frown, pulling a pair of tweezers from nowhere as she plucked at the longer shards. Sort of wished she had fingerclaws like a human right about now. "Tails if you were _anyone_ else I'd be taking you to a hospital, you know that? Or at _least_ a ring dispensary."

Did human towns even have ring dispensaries? Station Square did, but they had at least a small mobian population living there.

"I'll be fine." Tails shrugged as best he could, wrist straining against her grip. "I've-"

"Had worse. Shut up." Amy dragged half an inch of wood free from his hand, wincing on his behalf - _he_ barely even reacted. Blood dripped on her dress, didn't matter. Sonic hadn't looked at her anyway.

"Sorry."

"And stop apologising." The boat bobbed in the water as another gondola sailed past, laughing humans not even glancing their way as their passing dragged the mobians' boat in their wake.

"...Okay."

Another firework exploded above. He jerked in surprise, driving the tip of the tweezers into his palm.

"Penders! Hold still." She glanced at his tails. They were usually better indicators of his mood than the rest of him, puffed up and flicking harder than usual. "You okay?"

"I… don't like it here very much." His whisper barely reached her ears.

Of course he didn't. Amy clenched her jaw. He didn't like crowds, he didn't like sudden noises or flashes. Surprises in general made him uncomfortable. And as usual she hadn't thought about any of that one bit. As usual she was worrying about a stupid internet video and getting Sonic to look at her while Tails was probably sitting there remembering the time he drank a bee smoothie and Eggman blew off his butt or something. And he was pretending he was fine because she was relying on him. No, _taking advantage of him_ , to get her just a single happy moment where she could pretend Sonic _wanted_ to spend time with her. She was just so-

"Are _you_ okay?"

"Pathetic."

Tails flinched.

"Not _you_. I suck." Amy wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, ears downturned as she stared out across the water at the dimming flames. "No wonder Sonic doesn't like me."

"Well... I think you're pretty great?"

Amy snapped around to stare at the little fox. He shrunk slightly from her expression.

"What? I think you're in the top five people I know." He looked away from her, rubbing the back of his head.

Amy blinked. That was...

"Rude."

"Huh?" Tails turned back in surprise.

"Only _fifth_ , huh?" She smirked.

It was a sweet, if obvious, lie. Tails knew the world's top heroes, presidents, royalty, the idea that a part time patisserie chef was-

"I didn't say you were ranked at the bottom." He stared at her with that unreadable gaze, flames reflecting off eyes more blue than the water around them.

"... Stop trying to make me blush before I push you overboard."

"Oh. Uh. Sorry." He turned away, ears downturned.

Looks like she didn't have to worry about _his_ love life after all, Cream didn't stand a _chance_ against firepower of that magnitude. Amy breathed out heavily, now feeling very glad for the dim lighting in the silence that followed.

"Alright, I've got most of them out. Grab some rings when you can, okay?"

Tails nodded, silently recovering the limb before staring back down at his shoes.

"Hey, look, there's the royal float." Amy pointed at the bridge ahead, golden robed dancers surrounded the white robed princess as the fireworks display reached a crescendo above.

At least things would settle down a bit when they released the lanterns. She didn't feel much like celebrating anyway. Why did this stupid place have a fire festival in the first place? It was the city of _water_.

"Great." Tails didn't move, still hunched over, ears laid flat against the world outside.

Amy rolled her eyes, holding out her own bloodstained glove. "Come here."

Tails looked up at her, hesitantly extending his gloveless hand once more with a puzzled frown. Amy grabbed his wrist and pulled, yanking the fox towards her with a yelp of surprise.

"A-Amy?" He went rigid as she twisted him around to plop him on the floor of the dangerously rocking boat. "Wh-what are you doing?!"

"Fireworks are too loud for you, right?"

"I don't need to be treated like a kid." Tails frowned up at her over his shoulder.

"I'm not treating you like a _kid_. I'm treating you like a _friend_." For once. "Now face forward and stay still."

She didn't know if he was bristling because of her or the fireworks, but he complied, muscles tensing at her every touch as she leaned around him, pressing against his back, her arms around his chest, his fluffy head tickling her chin.

Had his heart been pounding like this the whole time? Faster and harder than the booming skies above with their endless colours and patterns. Was this from the fireworks, or getting hurt?

Amy sighed, her breathing almost as shaky as his. Part of her wanted to fill the silence, part feared breaking it, the largest part didn't know _how_ to break it.

What had he said before? That he was always struggling? Was this why he stayed away from fighting now? How much struggling had left him like _this_? How long had he _been_ like this? Steel wire pulled taut behind soft fluff and a quiet smile?

It was hard to remember that he was supposed to be younger than her, sometimes.

The boat finally drifted into the shadow of the bridge, barely moving in the still waters of the canal, shielded from the worst of the noise and flames above.

Amy breathed. Slower now. Keeping the rhythm for him to follow.

Strange how much it helped.

She could think again, though she wasn't sure where she wanted her thoughts to go. To dwell on the miserable failure of the evening? How Sonic was probably somewhere above, happier without her? A life of many failures and few successes? Stuck around stronger, faster, _better_ people and failing to even get them to look at her?

She'd had fun with Cream, at least. The anticipation, the hope, was that feeling why she kept trying?

It couldn't be that she really expected to succeed. She wasn't eight years old anymore. The only fairytales she encountered were the ones that snatched her hero away every time she managed to wheedle a few moments of attention from him.

But what could she do? She was already twelve, thirteen soon. What would she have if she gave up? A rented apartment and a part time job and proof positive that all her love couldn't even get her a third date? A kiss?

Twin tails brushed up to wrap around her twice over.

Was he trying to calm _her_ down now? She couldn't even keep herself stable, how did she think she could help him?

But Tails let out a breath, possibly the first since she'd hugged him, and Amy found herself echoing him.

"I'm doing better now." His tails tightened around her briefly. "Thanks, Amy."

"Next time tell me, alright?" She returned the squeeze. "Especially if you hurt yourself."

"It's fine."

"No it isn't. I might be a bad friend sometimes but I still care about you."

"I don't think you're a bad friend."

"I'm the reason you're here, aren't I?"

"... So?"

"Well, I should have thought about your feelings before I made you come."

"... Amy, last month Sonic took me to Ghost Murder Zone, the only zone with authentic murder ghosts."

"Oh. That time Eggman was beaming crazy-waves everywhere?"

"Yep. Almost got murdered by a murder ghost. It was pretty bad, but Sonic's still my best friend. And you're worried about bringing me to a _festival_?"

"Well that was for something important." Amy frowned. Fresh reminder how the world of Miles Prower was far beyond any trace of common sense and how little she belonged in it.

"Well, helping you is important too." Tails nodded.

"As important as saving the world?"

Tails shrugged as though the answer was obvious. The lights beyond the bridge had dimmed now, leaving them in near total darkness where they bobbed below the bridge.

"... You're a weird little guy, Tails."

"I'm not going to agree you're a bad friend just because you're rude."

Amy snorted. "Well, I... hit you sometimes, too."

"Knuckles has hit me harder than you ever have. So's Sonic for that matter."

"Sonic? Really?" Amy blinked in surprise. Those two _never_ fought.

"Fire monster, mind-control." Tails shrugged. "It happens. Had to fight 'em both at once."

"... Huh." There was that Prower normality again. "And you… _won_?"

"Why does everybody get so surprised when I manage to do things?" Tails flicked an ear, it tapped lightly on her cheek. "I am _very_ formidable."

"Well… I guess?" Amy lifted a hand to tug on the fluff of his cheek. "Adorable too… Adormidable?"

Tails made a rude noise. "So… are you going to let me up?"

"Mm…" Amy shook her head. "Not right now. You might have a relapse. And I'm pretty comfortable."

"I am _not_ your plush."

"We agreed that never happened." Amy sniffed. "And I know. You're cuddlier."

"Ughh."

"Cuter too."

"Amy, cut it out."

"And _oh_ so handsome."

"I can throw you overboard too, you know."

"Pfft. You can't even blush, Mister Formidable." She smirked.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean I'm not blushing!"

"I'll bear that in mind."

Tails' groan was cut short a moment later as he raised a finger. "Looks like we missed the first lantern."

The dark lit up once more as paper lanterns of every hue drifted up from the crowds like falling stars in reverse. Amy gasped in wonder at the sight, pressing forward to better see up past the bridge into the sky above.

She barely noticed the tails slip off her body until the boat started moving, propelled out into the open once more to reveal the full glory of the night sky.

"Oh. Wow." Amy's jaw fell open.

"I'm sorry you couldn't see this with Sonic."

Amy glanced down into Tails' dimly lit face as he stared upwards. Not at the sky, at her, a thousand paper lanterns reflected in his eyes.

"...Yeah." Amy looked away. "Well... I'd probably have ruined it by now anyway. You know that bridge we just passed under?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"There's a thousand year old legend that any couple that pass under the bridge together during the release of the lanterns are _destined soulmates_."

"Wh-wh-wh-what?! Really?"

Amy burst out laughing.

"Nope!" She rubbed her knuckles lightly across the little fox's head. "Made it up. I was planning on telling Sonic. Think he'd have believed me?"

"I think he'd have run away fast enough that his feet didn't even get wet."

Amy laughed again, dashing a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Yeah… Well… Sometimes the only thing a girl like me can hope for is to make him a little flustered, you know?"

Maybe he'd have believed it. Maybe he'd have wondered.

Maybe he'd have looked at her.

Just like he was looking at her right now.

"Sonic?" Amy released her grip on Tails as she leaned back, open-mouthed.

"Hey guys!" Sonic waved, leaning over the side of the bridge. "Cool festival, huh? You lose this?" He held an oar silhouetted against the sparkling sky.

"Hi, Mister Tails! Hi, Miss Amy!" Cream poked her head over the side as well, flapping her ears to right herself as she nearly lost her balance. "Mister Sonic helped me find Cheese! And we watched a princess!"

"That's great, Cream." Tails waved up at her with a calm smile.

"So how about you two park that thing already and we all go get something to eat? I'm starved!"

"Be right there, Sonic."

Rather than accepting the proffered oar, Tails simply started spinning his tails once more, propelling them like a speedboat through the water, skidding to a stop at a nearby pier.

Cream, somehow, was first to arrive, Cheese settled between her long ears as she babbled excitedly, dragging Tails by the arm as he tumbled, half backwards, off the boat to leave Amy alone.

"Hey." A gloved hand reached out, distinctive spined head once more silhouetted against the glowing sky above.

"Uh… Hi." Her heart pounded in her chest. Had she dozed off? Had Tails' cushiony nature beguiled her once more?

"I saw what you did for Tails." He scratched his cheek. "...Thanks."

"I…" Amy bit her lip. "I didn't do it to impress you."

"I know." He took her hand, helping her out of the boat. "And that was cool. You're a good friend. Now shall we? I wasn't kidding about being starving. You wouldn't _believe_ how far I had to go to find that chao. Chilli dogs okay?"

And with Sonic leading her by the hand, and Cream yelling at them to follow, Amy quietly revised her ranking for the night.

A _plus._

**The End**


	16. Epilogue

Sleep was nice, sometimes.

And for Miles "Tails" Prower, eternal sidekick, internet sensation, and amateur dating guru, sleep was well earned indeed.

Sure, there was a video of him, now with a view count thirteen digits long, dressed as a cartoon dragon and engaging in what, he was forced to admit, really was some exceptional choreography. And sure, the show creators had contacted him requesting to use his likeness in an episode - fittingly, as the sidekick to a certain two _other_ cameo characters, including the happiest rabbit girl in the world. And sure, he needed to head to Lightning Death Zone with Sonic in the morning to investigate Eggman's latest villainous scheme. But right now, curled up on his bed in the still, empty quiet of his lab, he was calm, content, and perhaps even happy.

Amy had enjoyed, if not necessarily the perfect date she wanted, then at least a few hours where her hero, usually racing too fast for anyone but himself to follow, slowed down a moment to actually notice the wonderful girl who reached for him so tirelessly.

Miles sighed, remembering her radiant smile with a faint one of his own.

Best of all, at least in his opinion, things between the two seemed no different at all, with Sonic's romantic aspirations as non-existent as Amy's were omnipresent, and with that his treasured friends still remained firmly in his life. He had emerged not only with his safe, stable world intact for the moment, but with another friend built into its foundation. An unmitigated success.

After all, what else could a mere shadow, however bold, possibly hope for if not the happiness of his friends?

Rubbing a gloved hand across his eyes, Miles turned out the light. And curled up on his bed in the still, empty quiet of his lab, he closed his eyes and dreamed of starlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this alternative look at Amy Rose and Tails the Fox.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this love story where there are no kisses, nobody's quite sure who's romancing whom, every plan goes wrong, and nothing is solved in the end.
> 
> Ah, to be young again.
> 
> As usual, if anyone has any idea what tags should be on this story then suggestions in the comments are gratefully received.
> 
> ~ Pan


End file.
